Anna Ferrer's bread and artistic ambition inaugurate the Fira Mediterrània

BarcelonaWhen the curtain rises, Anna Ferrer appears lying on a surface that will later be revealed to be a bakery table. In the background, the names of a family of bakers, the Ferrers, born in 1885, are projected. An hour later, it is the father of the Menorcan singer, Toni Ferrer, who is lying in the bakery, and when the curtain of the Kursaal Theatre in Manresa begins to lower while the applause of the bread resounds, the applause of the audience is heard. What happened before is Bread, the project in which the Menorcan singer explains her relationship with bread and, above all, the complex feelings she must confront because she will no longer continue the family baking tradition. It disrupts the continuity of the roots, and she explains this in the opening performance of the Mediterranean Fair in Manresa, a venue dedicated to traditional bread.

"In bread, desire and restriction coexist," she sings at one point in a highly emotional performance thanks to Anna Ferrer's voice and the magnificent contribution of guitarist Pol Batlle and percussionist Toni Llull, as well as Ernesto Artillo's staging, which plays with different levels of stagecraft. There is pain and tension, and sadness, perhaps. Bread is life and a burden; it is family and at the same time the chain that is hard to break. Anna Ferrer sings these emotions, in Catalan and Spanish, while Papa makes bread. At times, she approaches the vocal sensitivity of Rita Payés and Sílvia Pérez Cruz; at other times, especially when she sings in Catalan and plays with polyphony, Anna Ferrer emerges from the performance. Parenostic and the one who sang in the Trencadís of the Root Music Orchestra of Catalonia (OMAC) at the opening of the Mediterranean Fair in 2021, is Anna Ferrer, magnetic in the melodies capable of hypnotizing the audience.

This "I'm sorry" gradually transforms, first into anger and discomfort and finally into reconciliation and celebration. The decision not to make bread, not to continue the baking tradition, ceases to be a rebellion and a disappointment (depending on each point of view). It is then that the show takes on a different direction: she will not perform the baker's trade, but another profession, that of music. Father and daughter stage the transfer, and the important thing is no longer the nature of the trade but the fact of having a trade and the freedom to choose a destiny. After all, the father is also responsible for his daughter's musical passion, an Anna Ferrer who has sung many work songs in her career, from when people sang while working. Although the conceptual dramaturgy is not always sufficiently comprehensible, Bread It grows thanks to Anna Ferrer's ambition and sensitive performances.

Before the premiere of BreadJordi Fosas, the artistic director of the Mediterranean Fair in Manresa, conveyed enthusiasm. He was eager to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Obrador de Raíz, a project born to promote and support contemporary grassroots creation. Anna Ferrer's show emerged from this workshop. "And this year we're putting an even stronger emphasis on the Obrador de Raíz," he said. Also in the pre-inauguration remarks, the Director General of Popular Culture, Carol Duran, praised the workshop as a "creative engine." Finally, the mayor of Manresa, Marc Aloy (of ERC), speaking about the international situation, said he hopes that the peace agreement between Israel and Hamas "puts an end to the genocide being committed in Gaza." "May the bombs and massacres give way to people and culture," the mayor added.