Don Quijote, regreso al futuro / Don Quixote, back to the future

By Pablo Meléndez-Haddad

(Reportage published in the ABC Cultural supplement. Madrid, September 30, 2000)


The opening of the second season at the new Gran Teatro del Liceo is filled with cutting-edge modernity, so much so that it feels like a production from the future. La Fura dels Baus has undertaken an ambitious project featuring a score by José Luis Turina, a libretto by Justo Navarro, and musical direction by Josep Pons, aiming to move audiences more than to shock them. "D.Q., Don Quixote in Barcelona" is the title of the first world premiere of this new era for Spain's oldest operatic venue.

It is incredibly modern: La Fura dels Baus's imagery will transform the Gran Teatro del Liceo into an immense operatic laboratory. When the curtain rises tonight, nothing will ever be the same in the Liceo atmosphere -that's certain-. This D.Q., Don Quixote in Barcelona bears little resemblance to Don Quichotte by Massenet, for instance, or to Cervantes's novel itself. The world premiere inaugurating the Liceo season in a special performance for sponsors and patrons has its own website, was created by a theater group, fuses live symphonic music with electroacoustic elements, and features contributions from spontaneous collaborators in several sections of the score. A refreshing format that brings a gust of fresh air -or rather a true hurricane- to the world of opera.
Michael Kraus, Ned Barts, Francisco Vas, Itxaro Mentxaka, Flavio Oliver, Pilar Jurado, and Mireia Casas are among the performers who, alongside an immense visual spectacle, will bring to life the nine performances of this new endeavor to affirm that opera is a living art. The wave of modernity that will take over the Liceo ambiance, thanks to La Fura dels Baus, has required several years of development, dating back to when the previous artistic director of the Liceo, Albin Hänseroth, contacted the successful Catalan theater group to commission the creation of a new operatic production. After many working sessions, D.Q. will come to life thanks to a libretto by Justo Navarro and a score by José Luis Turina. The extensive cast, led from the podium by Josep Pons, principal associate conductor of the Gran Teatro, will employ the most advanced theatrical, musical, and telematic technology available today for a production of this kind.
Art and the internet have joined forces for this world premiere, as part of this opera would not have been possible without its website. "Not only have we tried to provide information about the opera and its themes online", said Joan Matabosch, artistic director of the Liceo, "we've also shared the creative process behind the production, allowing it to become, to some extent, a collective creation by offering audiences a chance to contribute to the score". For Matabosch, this website has also represented a radically contemporary expression of what this opera is.

Without Dulcinea

This D.Q. in practical reality has little to do with the Quixote Cervantes envisioned: there's no Dulcinea, no Sancho Panza, and no windmills. In the first of the three acts, the action takes place in Geneva -"the bank of banks", according to Carles Padrissa of La Fura- in the year 3014; it then shifts to Hong Kong in 3016, before ending in Barcelona in 2005, to which the protagonists travel by means of a time machine. Don Quixote -both the character and his historical-cultural weight, along with all the symbolism he carries- serves as the pretext driving the plot's narrative threads.
According to the musical director, Josep Pons, this opera is a golden opportunity for the genre, as it opens up the possibility of future revivals: "Both the libretto and the score of D.Q. have quality and boldness, two essential elements. The libretto will work theatrically and possesses a strong poetic force, further enriched with significant symbolic and conceptual weight. The themes presented in the work are very daring; this gives it added value."
Still, the director is quick to clarify that D.Q. "contains all the elements of a conventional opera. It's a work with live music, structured in three acts and several scenes, with a libretto in Spanish. Melody is not sacrificed, and in addition to arias, there are duets, ariosos for two characters, and even overlapping arias. There are also spoken moments and dialogues. The orchestration is brilliant, and the score features moments of great beauty and technical difficulty. It doesn't simply serve as a vocal accompaniment; it brings an impressive instrumental richness. Truly, there are highly virtuosic moments, both vocally and instrumentally". Quotations from great operas in history, a storm that's a "max-mix" of classical storms in the genre -including the famous one from Il barbiere di Siviglia- and the aforementioned contributions from spontaneous composers via the internet have helped shape this theatrical product, suited to the coming century.

Creative Website

One section of the D.Q. website -available in Spanish, Catalan, and English, accessible at www.liceubarcelona.com and www.lafura.com- allowed users to freely download the FMOL program so anyone interested could participate in composing six parts that the author left open in the score. "People could send music they created themselves with this software, or, if they preferred, silence. It was also possible to modify other submitted proposals", explains Carles Padrissa from La Fura. "The opera's composer selected the submissions he found useful and blended them into the score at these six open points.".
However, this opportunity to contribute to the D.Q. score didn't make spontaneous composers co-authors of the music: "We might use certain contributions in the first performance, but they could be changed in other performances or even in future stagings of the work", Padrissa affirmed. The website also provided online access to some of the rehearsals and included videos with interviews featuring the D.Q. project leaders.
La Fura arrives at a stage that once felt cursed to them: "In 1984 we wrote the Manifiesto canalla, which stated that the best way to fix the money-driven culture issue was to wall up the Liceo. If we'd continued along that line, we'd have become stuck in our own views; even so, in a way, now we're here to disrupt", Padrissa noted. "We tend to generate love and hate in equal parts", the stage director continued. "Our main goal isn't to provoke debate, but we don't mind if it happens. If one audience member leaves, I won't lose sleep as long as the majority enjoy the performance". Meanwhile, Álex Ollé, the other director of the production, also from the Catalan theater group, emphasized, "There are people who are set in their ways and don't understand that the world moves forward. Just as museums are opened to display past works, contemporary art museums need to be created to showcase the concerns of a generation, of a specific time. In this sense, we believe that opera audiences need to renew themselves".
This forward-looking opera arrives at the Liceo in co-production with the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville and the Fondation Internationale pour une Histoire de la Civilisation Européenne. It features the posthumous scenography of architect Enric Miralles, who passed away a few months ago. The stage direction is by Carles Padrissa and Álex Ollé, both from La Fura dels Baus; costumes are by Chu Uroz, and lighting is by an expert in the field, Barcelona-based Albert Faura.

Excerpt from an Interview with Justo Navarro Published in the same Issue of ABC Cultural

By Ángela Molina


[...]

- You're the author of the libretto for Don Quixote in Barcelona, premiering today at the Liceo (see Music section) with scenography by Enric Miralles, the architect who passed away last June, and a production by La Fura dels Baus. Isn't it magnificent that in today's brutal and violent world, someone might become mad -a noble, romantic madman- from so much reading or writing?
- Reading is a habit that may eventually be lost, but something might emerge to replace it. Today, more people are driven mad by images than by literature. Humanity has learned to reflect through reading; maybe in the future, it will be possible to reflect by watching images. In any case, I agree with Borges when he says he "can imagine a world without birds, but not a world without books".

- What is the Don Quixote you envision like?
- He is a true outsider, a foreigner, a man on the brink of fulfilling the fate of all human things: absolute oblivion. He is also a man undergoing transformation, like Gregor Samsa -a figure of admirable curiosity, but one that may repel for not being part of the group of equals.