The drama, premiered in 1635, tells the story of the heir to the King of Poland, Sigismund, sentenced to live in captivity by his father, as a prophecy predicted that he would be a tyrant for his people. In it, Calderón de la Barca dealt with universal themes such as freedom, fear, destiny and power..
Its presentation at this time is very opportune, since just now the results of an academic investigation that was looking for the remains of Calderón de la Barca are known. After four years, it was determined that a part of them remain in their original burial, in the crypt of what was the church of El Salvador in the center of Madrid, where another building stands today.
After Calderón’s death in 1681 and his subsequent burial, the remains were in six different places and arrived in 1902 at the parish of Nuestra Señora de los Doloresof the Congregation of San Pedro, of which the author was a member and which he named heir to his will.
A new commemorative plaque pays tribute to the author starting this month in the building located where the church of El Salvador used to be, and its discovery in honor of the playwright is part of the commemoration cycle of the 400 years of his theatrical debut, since his work ‘ Love, Honor and Power’ premiered in June 1623.
This opera of ‘Life is a dream’, in co-production between Colombia and Spain, inaugurated the Ibero-American Festival of the Golden Age-Classics in Alcalá, Spain, with two performances that were presented at the Teatro Salón Cervantes, on June 9 and 10, and had the support of the Colombian Embassy. The following will take place at the premiere in Bogotá, at the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, on July 21 and 22.
It will have the stage direction by Alejandro Chacón, musical direction by Valentin Tournet and interpretation by the La Chapelle Harmonique orchestra. The cast will be made up of the tenor Andrés Felipe Agudelo, who plays Segismundo; the soprano Laura Gómez, in the role of Rosaura; the Venezuelan bass Ernesto Morillo, who will be Clotaldo; the mezzo-soprano Paola Leguizamón, who plays Clarín, and the tenor César Gutiérrez, in the role of Basilio. In addition, there will be a choral quartet with mezzo-soprano Geraldine León, soprano Ana María Ruge, tenor Felipe Ceballos and bass Juan David González.
Ramiro Osorio, director of the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, explains details of the play and the relations between Spain and Colombia.
Spain was the guest of honor country in 2022 and will visit us in the 2023 season at the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo. How are the cultural relations between the two countries?
Relationships are fruitful and of great diversity and impact. They are permanently enriched through the work of multiple institutions. Just to give an example, at the Teatro Mayor, this year, in the Spain Country Guest of Honor program, we have more than 300 artists in our program: the great national organizations, the National Dance Company, the National Ballet of Spain and the National Orchestra of Spain, which will offer two concerts in September. We have also presented great artists such as María Pagés and Juan Diego Botto, and we have provided a look at the performing arts of the Basque Country with the companies Tanttaka Teatroa and Kukai Dantza, among others. This is the best example of the richness of this relationship.
Tell us about this opera, please.
‘Life is a dream’ is a philosophical work, it talks about free will, about how each one forges their own destiny. It is the first time that it is performed as an opera in Spanish, since the creators, when investigating other operas based on this great work of the Golden Age, found some versions in English, so it is a real event to put the masterpiece of Calderón de la Barca in a format like this . Something particular about this opera is that it is composed for an orchestra specializing in baroque music, which was what was heard when Calderón de la Barca wrote ‘Life is a dream’. This means that the music that we are going to hear, even though it has been composed in the 21st century, is framed in the spirit of the original time of the text. There is quite international participation. The musical director and the orchestra, Valentin Tournet and La Chapelle Harmonique are French; the stage director, Alejandro Chacón, is Argentine. The script and music are in charge of Iván Olano Duque and Juan Pablo Carreño, both Colombians.
It is very important that you have people from several countries.
For quite some time, this type of work has been completely normal in large opera productions. The stage director, Alejandro Chacón, once said on this subject that music is a universal language that is capable of uniting different cultures, languages and nationalities, and here it is seen in spades.
Why do you present it first in Spain?
We inaugurated the 2023 edition of the Ibero-American Festival of the Golden Age-Classics in Alcalá with this production because it is one of the outstanding aspects of this co-production project. Now we will make the premiere in Colombia. It seems to me that it is one of the great possibilities that cooperation with Spain offers us: being able to do this type of show, and in this case also with France, with the La Chapelle Harmonique orchestra. A space is opened for Colombian artists to interact with very important professionals from other countries and for them to participate in events as important as the Festival. In addition, it is a way of presenting Colombia with large productions where we see our outstanding artists, where they are known and where, in addition, we establish relationships that will allow them to become involved in institutions of great importance in Spain and France.
Have you thought about taking it to other countries?
For now we do not plan to present it in other countries. The opera themes are organized with enough time. Obviously, after the premiere in Bogotá and after having the production both in Spain and in Bogotá, we are going to start offering it to other theaters and we hope that we can continue making this great effort profitable and that it will allow us to know more about these Colombian creators like Juan Pablo Carreno and Ivan Olano.
What do you expect about the presentation of the opera in Colombia?
The premiere of La vida es sueño at the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo will be a real event. It is an example of how a Colombian cultural institution can achieve large-scale projects based on innovative cooperation models. This is a great achievement for the Teatro Mayor and of course we hope that the public will attend to see and recognize all the creative, artistic and technical talent that we have in the country.
