En un cuartito los cuatro (In a Little chamber the four of us) is a paraphrase of the bulerías song:
En un cuartito los dos, In a little chamber the two of us
veneno que tu me dieras, If you shall give me poison
veneno tomara yo Poison shall I drink
Because there is no sweeter and more painful poison than the one which makes you die of love.
Spanish song, such as the “cantares”, possesses an unusual poetry, the secrets of the heart, letting free the love and desire of the fright of being lonely.
We are facing an unusual recital. Four characters meet in a living room. Creating images they face the depths of fate through a binomial with the castanets, which enters the contemporary stage as a percussion instrument on its own. It’s an unforeseeable, oniric, spontaneous act, present in our music since Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas to the “baile jondo” from the “seguiriya”or the drammatic melodies by Joaquín Nin, Pablo Luna, Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Rodrigo, García Lorca,… Immersed in flamenco pictures, chameleonic, as memory flashes, images that overwhelmingly come and go.
In melody, as in sweet things, history’s emotion finds refuge, its permanent light free of dates and facts. Love and the breeze of our country awake in songs or in the rich paste of nougat, bringing the living breath of dead epochs, in a way which they do not in stones, bells, local characters or even language…/… A ballad, after all, is not perfect until it has acquired its own melody, to give it blood and a heartbeat and a sober or erotic atmosphere for its characters to inhabit. The latent melody, with its structure of nerve-centres and blood vessels, infuses living historic warmth into texts which can sometimes seem vacuous, sometimes valueless except as mere evocations.
F. García Lorca
Programme
Sonata en DO Mayor K.159* – D. Scarlatti
Canción española nº 6 de “El niño judío”** – P. Luna
Fandango de “Doña Francisquita”*** – A.Vives
Granadina*** – J. Nin
Malagueña – J. Nin
Sonata en FA Menor K.466 – D. Scarlatti
Cantar del Alma – F. Mompou
Farruca de “El Sombrero de tres picos”** – M. de Falla
Sevillanas del siglo XVIII – García Lorca
La Tarara – García Lorca
Las tres hojas – García Lorca
Tus ojillos negros – M.de Falla
“En un cuartito los dos” – Popular
Malagueña – E. Lecuona
Canción del amor dolido -M.de Falla
Siguiriya*** -Popular
Adela – J. Rodrigo
Clavelitos** – J. Valverde
Zapateado de “La tempranica”*** – J. Giménez
Castanets Score: * Emma Maleras; **Consol Grau; *** Carlos Murias (Fandango from the Doña Francisquita version by de José de Udaeta ).
Artistic team
María Viñas, voice
Born in Barcelona, in 2003 gets her professional Singing Degree at the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo. Subsequently moves to Berlin where she continues her studies with the baritone George Fortune, specializing in German Lied. She furthered her drama studies at the “School for Performing Arsts” in London with Clara Armand. She currently lives in Madrid and studies with the singing teacher Daniel Muñoz.
She has taken part in several recitals, concerts and opera and zarzuela productions, both in Spain (Gran Teatre del Liceu, Festival de la Porta Ferrada, Teatro Principal de Zaragoza, Auditorio Ciudad de León, Teatro Falla de Cadiz, Auditori Axa in Barcelona, Monestir de Pedralbes in Barcelona, etc.) as abroad (Holland, Morocco, Italy and France).
In 2010 she made her debut as Euridice in Gluck’s “Orfeo and Euridice”, at the Auditori Axa in Barcelona under the direction of Roger Alier, and in 2011 as Dolores in the Zarzuela “La Dolorosa” by José Serrano, with the Compañía Lírica de Ciutat Comtal.
Today she is a member of the female vocal trio Les Cot, which combines music and stage with a repertoire based on Jazz of the 50s.
Manuel Ruiz, piano
Piano Honour Award at the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo in Barcelona.
He currently furthers his vocal coaching and the Cos-Art method studies with Angel Soler y Yiya Díaz. He works as vocal coach at the Enriqueta Tarrés Singing Chair and with the soprano Meritxell Olaya at the Conservatorio del Liceo.
He is also a regular collaborator of the Gran Teatro del Liceu Choir and Orchestra (de Billy, Weigle, Kopylov, Schneider, Poder, Ticket) and cunducts the productions of “The small Magic Flute”, “Allegro Vivace” and “Hänsel and Gretel”. Ruiz has been Josep Carreras’ rehearsal pianist in ” Bel Canto Cinema”., as well as Montserrat Caballé’s private coach.
He works as accompanist of various famous singers, such as Ramón Contreras, Carlos Cosías, Rocío Martínez, Joan Martín-Royo, Maribel Ortega, Sergi Jiménez Carreras and Pierfrancesco Fiordaliso (violin).
LA CHAMELA, flamenco dancer
Isabel Ruiz de Villa, starts her flamenco dance studies with Flora Albaicín.
From 1988 until 1991 is the artistic director of the “Tablao de Carmen” in Barcelona.
In 1993, together with the violoncello player Josep Bassal, performed various pieces out of the Spanish cello repertoire at the Orchestra Hall in Detroit (E.E.U.U.).
In 1996 she dances with the cello octet “Conjunto Ibérico” conducted by Elías Arizcuren, in the show “Falla-Lorca”, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and later touring in Holland.
She is part of the group Cello & Piano & Flamenco, which offered a production on Spanish and Flamenco music around Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Lebanon and Colombia. She has also toured in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France with her show “Faszination Flamenco”, to critical and public great acclaim. With her own company La Chamala has performed in several Festivals in Spain, France, Italy and Hong Kong.
Carlos Murias, Castanets and direction
Journalist, teacher and PHD in Theater Production and Dramaturgy by the Institut del Teatre. He has also studied classic and modern dance, aswell as castanets with José de Udaeta and Emma Maleras.
He is a scriptwriter for Television and Radio and has written several theatre plays such as “Salomé Material” (2006) and “Quijote Máquina”. In 1995 published “José de Udaeta, 50 años en escena” (José de Udaeta, 50 years on stage”) and in 2002 his translation of “The language of dance” by Mary Wigman.
In 2000 Jean-Charles Gil hired him as actor-dancer-castanets-player for the play “Nati te quiero” (Nati, I love you) at de Avignon Opera House in Aix en Provence, and at the Théâtre du Gymnase and the Théàtre National (la Criée) in Marseille. At the same time he made his actor debut in “Tórtola Valencia”, directed by Xavier Albertí, and a coproduction between the Teatro de la Maestranza and the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Aplaudiment Sebastià Gasch 2002), which toured in Spain, Colombia, Cuba, and Italy, ending at the Teatro Real de Madrid in 2005.
In the fall of 2007 premiered “El trío en mi bemol” by Eric Röhmer. He is part of the Cor de Castanyoles (Castanets Choir) Emma Maleras, and since 2008 has performed as a castanets soloist in several productions around Spain, Morocco and France, such as “Carmen”, directed by Michel Plasson at the Orange Lyric Festival. Since 2011 plays in a musical trio together with Manuel Ruiz (piano) and Pierfrancesco Fiordaliso (violin), which performs in the south of France.
teatroatempo.com 