A baroque artifact makes a striking impression at L'Auditori

BarcelonaBaroque concert (1974), the fascinating novel by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier, is the spark that ignited the imagination of musician David Albet, founder of the ensemble BCN216 and professor at Esmuc. "Four or five years ago, I rediscovered the book in a friend's library. I reread it and felt the urge to create a stage-musical piece, using early music as a pretext, a journey with time jumps from 18th-century Venice to Wagner, Louis Armstrong, and an electronic piece." The spark spread. The first to receive the call was set designer Pol Roig, who happened to be in Venice, the city where Carpentier imagined an encounter between Vivaldi, Handel, and Scarlatti. "I had just visited Vivaldi's Ospedale della Pietà," recalls Roig, marveling at the coincidence. As the idea began to take shape, musician Dani Espasa, director of the ensemble Vísperas de Arnadí, quickly joined the project. "I see myself reflected a lot in the book, and it's full of musical references," Espasa explains.

All of this culminates in a show, also titled Baroque concertwhich is being performed at L'Auditori in Barcelona on November 14 and 15, as part of the Escenes series. One of the unique aspects of this "artifice" is its educational nature: the musicians involved are students of Esmuc (there are also two alumni): a small all-girls string orchestra, as well as percussion, harp, trumpet, harpsichord, soprano Montserrat Seró, and actors Mamadou Diallo. "It's a training project equivalent to 45 hours of class time, and the corresponding credits," explains Albet.

The novel is "a trigger" from which Albet, Roig, and Espasa propose a game, "a theatrical action," in which music, especially theostinato Baroque is the necessary common thread. "Many musical genres, from Baroque to blues, share a harmonic formula that everyone recognizes; rhythmic patterns also present in the 20th and 21st centuries," says Espasa, who takes the project beyond the musicians' "comfort zone." "Students in the classical and contemporary music department will have to play Wagner on period instruments, and the trumpet player will play jazz, classical, and Baroque," says Espasa.

As Roig explains, Carpentier's book begins with the Carnival of Venice, and in the performance Baroque concert They range from popular to classical music, from European to American." And on stage they unfold a kind of cabinet of curiosities in which "unexpected relationships" occur.