LA FURA DELS BAUS - SANOU JOSE - CD METAMORFOSIS - BORIS GODUNOV

Popis - METAMORFOSIS - BORIS GODUNOV:
LA FURA DELS BAUS “METAMORFOSIS” / “BORIS GODUNOV” ORIGINAL MUSIC BY JOSEP SANOU THE SHARED SPECTACLE From day one, La Fura dels Baus has been, and remains, a project of global creation. The technical and artistic disciplines which we have developed, either by accident or design, have been the key to the production of our work. The most habitual, most familiar, for their obvious symbiotic characteristics, are the stage direction, scenery and the physical interpretation, the plastic arts – painting, sculpture, photography and film – and , of course, the music. This creative philosophy, which is the leitmotif of the group, has enabled us to enjoy - over the span of thirty years - a professional working relationship with a wide variety of artists who have understood and translated into their own language, the fundamental axiom of La Fura: shared spectacle, total spectacle. In the fullest sense of the musical composition, the collaboration with other artists from outside of La Fura has been principally determined by on the spot need for documentation pertinent to the subject matter of each play and at the same time for the added enrichment represented by this new blood, new ideas and the great artistic level of the creators As an example, when the work was finding its way between technology and the deepest beats, between specific music and flamenco, the contributions from singer Ginesa Ortega or the guitarist Juan Manuel Ca?izares assured that the level of the composition was really top notch. It is precisely this rich vein that we mined to find particularly fruitful methods and relationships. This is also the case in the latest plays directed by ?lex Ollé, Metamorfosis and Boris Gudonov, different a priori in terms of their central themes - in Metamorfosis: isolation, and in Boris Gudonov: the extreme pressure of violence – but, on a closer reading linked by a common goal: to translate symbolism from the physical to the intellectual – from the street to the theatre floor – without losing the capacity of ritual catharsis where the spectator forgets about the conscience of the work in order to integrate himself in the spontaneous act, or into that which Antonin Artaud defined as an action similar to hunger. Josep Sanou has understood this and has grasped the concept that generates these impulses; he has turned the soundtrack into a red hot poker which cauterizes each part of the story, as if it were a thread that sews together every scene, finishing by giving the whole work its own entity and cohesion. This music fits the idealogy of La Fura like a glove and makes a step forward, a new matrix in the difficult interface between word and act, the explosion and the most intimate moment, between the physical and the spiritual, the ideal sound in beginning to understand the contradictory struggle between reason and emotion. MIKI ESPUMA JOSEP SANOU – BIOGRAPHY Born Barcelona, 1962, composer. Studied at the Aula de Música Moderna y Jazz de Barcelona. Began his professional career in the 80’s as a pianist and arranger with Gato Perez and La Trinca, amongst others. He is the founder of the group Gringos (1986-1996) a pioneering outfit in inquisitive audio-visual innovation which fused very diverse musical styles with a characteristic selection of video-art projections. With this group he recorded three albums, took part in various compilations of electronic and experimental music, and won prestigious awards with the following heading the list: the Premio Ciutat de Barcelona, Biennal de Barcelona, Premi del Mercat de Música Viva of Vic for best show, Premi Altaveu for audio-visual innovation, First Prize at the Festival de Vídeo Musical de Vitoria Gasteiz, International Visual Music Awards... Josep Sanou creates soundtracks for film, dance and theatre, usually working with La Fura dels Baus, Javier Daulte, Felipe Vega, Danat Danza and Sabine Dahrendorf amongst others. He has composed music for more than twenty documentaries and since 1990 has been composing and producing jingles and station ID’s for the main TV channels. METAMORFOSIS “Good evening. We are about to enter a world where everybody lives as comfortably, as peacefully and as indifferently as they can, a careful world where nothing can happen because nothing new is necessary. In this world, completely different from ours, an everyday man, after a fitful sleep wakes up one morning transformed…” As a liberal reconstruction of the Franz Kafka work, Metamorfosis - written by Javier Daulte and ?lex Ollé - explores the angst of 21st century urban man, his search for models, his desire to stand out from the crowd, the fear that keeps him tied to conventions, the effort it takes for him to think for himself. In the persona of Gregor, who goes to bed as a human and wakes up as an insect, La Fura dels Baus devines a metaphor for today’s man, conformist yet alienated, who gives up his future and his happiness in order to comply with his social duties, to a life which , ultimately, destroys him. Metamorfosis also takes as a point of reference the phenomenon of the “hikikomori”, Japanese teenagers and young adults, who feel suffocated by Japanese society and consider themselves incapable of fulfilling the social roles expected of them, rebelling by means of social isolation. CREDITS All songs performed and composed by Josep Sanou Violins: Joan Oropella, Pere Bardagí / Chorus: Coro Bailen 12 / Piano, keyboards and samplers: Josep Sanou / Narrators: Pere Molina, Fina Rius, Albert Prat Original concept and artisitic direction ?lex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus) / stage direction and dramatization ?lex Ollé and Javier Daulte Script Javier Daulte / scenery: Roland Olbeter / wardrobe: Catou Verdier / lighting: Pere Capell, Javier Daulte and ?lex Ollé / Vídeo: Franc Aleu and Emmanuel Carlier Cast: Ruben Ametllé - Gregor / Isak Férriz - friend / Sara Rosa Losilla - Grete / Angelina Llongueras - mother / Artur Trias - father Assistant to the director : Valentina Carrasco / technical chief : Alberto Pastor / lighting technician: David Hoyo / video technician: Joan Rodon / sound technician: Cristian Teruel / machinist: Francesc Martínez / production manager: Carles Manrique / executive producer: Pep Salazar / production assistant: Aina Romagosa / stage construction: Masters / video production: Urano Films and team from the Teatre Lliure Co production: Teatre Lliure, SEEI, Centro Dramático Nacional, ICUB-Barcelona Festival Grec 2006, La Fura dels Baus with the collaboration of Temporada Alta 2005 CD edition co-ordinators: Miki Espuma and Salvador González Cd design: Miki Espuma and Salvador González Model maker photographer: Andreu Adrover A 21ST CENTURY GREGOR Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis provides La Fura dels Baus and Javier Daulte an unbeatable jumping off point for exploring the angst of 21st century urban man. Metamorphosis, transformation and change are the engine of this tragedy. Metamorphosis of contemporary man who faces a world with no collective way out. This Metamorfosis deals with an attempt to be different, a foiled attempt in as much as this separation of the individual from the herd doesn’t happen in a creative and liberating way, but rather by means of the destruction of individuality itself. Gregor, the protagonist of Metamorfosis, could be any us, since we all, at a certain moment of or lives, have felt different, excluded by our own perceptions and by that which our surroundings make us feel. Today we are very much, if not too much, ready to sacrifice our potential and cave in to conformity which only responds to the stimulation of consumerism Kafka never explained the reasons for this transformation. This thesis by La Fura dels Baus and Javier Daulte remains close to this aspect of the work. Let’s say that it is not necessarily major reasons that cause this transformation to take place and that it is an inherent part of modern society. The possibility of rejection, due to factors either internal or external, is historically integrated into societal structure. In this dramatization blame was neither sought nor assigned. We didn’t want to provide answers, but on the contrary, ask questions. The play relates, ultimately, to the condition of the individual, and this condition would seem to be fear. Gregor Samsa lives in horror, beaten down by fear, conforming to and bound by conventions. Is it not the same fear that has subdued human beings from time immemorial? We are living in a time when we all tend to be steered by models that regulate our wellbeing through consumerism. When anybody wishes to be separate from the pack he is perceived as a “weirdo”. Illness in the 21st century is that of the mind: bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, panic or the disquieting “hikikomori” who seem to be propagating throughout the West. The era of new technologies (television. Internet, video-games) contributes to dehumanization. Great emotional sacrifices occur. People have difficulty cultivating and maintaining family relations, friendships, and love affairs. The demands weighing daily on each individual generate a stress that tends to brutalize the subject. It is as if the choice offered by the modern world dictates a paradoxical and sinister sentence: In order to stop being one of the herd we have to turn into an animal. The human herd is becoming docile and is not capable of generating new ways of thinking. Today’s Gregor Samsa acts out a flight to the inside, a voluntary escape. He becomes a recluse in order to have no contact with the outside world. Are we better than he? Who among us has not considered, at some stage, renouncing everything, fleeing from responsibility, retreating into our own shell and avoiding the reality we have to face? ?LEX OLLÉ – JAVIER DAULTE METAMORFOSIS – THE MUSIC I recall that when I first read Kafka’s Metamorphosis I was very young and it had a great impact on me. What’s more, the tale awoke in me the desire to discover reading. ?lex Ollé invited me to create the music for Metamorfosis and my first impression was that he was asking for a sound track similar to that which I had composed for Fausto 5.0, but it ended up being not as dark and noisy but much more eclectic and emotional ”A random man, after a restless dream, one morning wakes up transformed..” Any one of us, under certain determined circumstances , could be Gregor Samsa, we don’t need the apparent transformation into a monster, a beetle, to be terrified, worried, desperate, disenchanted, rejected.... this vision from La Fura dels Baus adaptation was the compass bearing for my work. In the Metamorfosis soundtrack we can pick out distinct sonic worlds: the music and special effects created for the videos that appear in the play, the incidental music, which gives it a certain detachment and a tinge of irony, and the music that supports and powers the state of mind of the characters. It is not deive music, but rather a network of sonic textures that help to create a claustrophobic and suffocating atmosphere that shrouds this work. JOSEP SANOU BORIS GODUNOV “Once more the same dream: the theatre seats, the stage, the silent and anxious crowd, the terrorists watching, patrolling the aisles, a crushing silence and a vile stench from the improvised toilets behind the stage. This is also a theatre piece, i think, we are in a theatre, we are all characters, we are acting the parts of the captives, they the roles of the terrorists, a interminable play with a gruesome finale.....” Boris Godunov, a tragedy by La Fura dels Baus, written by David Plana and ?lex Ollé, covers a work of a man considered to be a great innovator in Russian literature, Alexander Pushkin, who, in Boris Godunov, spun an extraordinary tale of raw ambition and an unscrupulous lust for power. The play wanted to go beyond Pushkin’s and touch on one of the great threats of the 21st century: terrorism, using the 2002 taking of hostages by terrorists at Moscow’s Dubrovka theatre as a starting point. Boris Godunov is, more than a political or sociological commentary, living on the inside of an extreme and unique experience. The spectator can relive the fear of the terrorist threat in his own skin, and at the same time, enjoy the spectacular show that is guaranteed by each La Fura dels Baus production. CREDITS All songs composed and performed by: Josep Sanou Violins: Joan Oropella, Pere Bardagí / Chorus: Coro Bailen 12 / Piano, keyboards and samplers: Josep Sanou / narators: Pere Molina, Fina Rius, Albert Prat Original concept and artistic direction: ?lex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus) / stage direction and dramatization ?lex Ollé and David Plana : David Plana / scenery: Alberto Pastor / wardrobe: Catou Verdier/ lighting: Pere Capell y ?lex Ollé / Vídeo: Joan Rodon cast: Juan Olivares - Vorotinski / Pep Mir?s - Chuiski / Albert Prat - Grigori / ?scar Rabadan - Boris Godunov / Pedro Gutiérrez - Leader / Manel Sans - Second / Sara Rosa Losilla - Actress / Francesca Pi?ón - widow / Fina Rius - negotiator assistant director Anna Rodríguez / art assistant: Vicky Murillo / technical head: Xavier Xipell / lighting technician: Pere Capell / video technician: Joan Rodon / sound technician: Albert Freixas / assistant sound designer: Damien Bazin / trainer: Salvador Chaves / weapons advisor: Ramón López / producer: Carles Manrique / executive producer: Susanna Jove / production assistant: Cai Felip / videographer Frank Aleu, Urano Films and teams from Teatre Lliure / Production Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Centro Dramático Nacional, Elsinor and La Fura dels Baus / assembly, rehearsals and representations: technical and management teams of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya with the collaboration of Ayuntamiento de Molina de Segura and Ayuntamiento de Rubí CD co-ordinators: Miki Espuma and Salvador González CD design: Miki Espuma and Salvador González Model maker: photography: Andreu Adrover ABOUT BORIS GODUNOV When the global communications media reported the terrorist assault upon Moscow’s Dubrovka theatre, my reaction was of stupor, not solely because of the violence itself, but also because this violence had invaded a theatre , a space which, up until that point, had always been equated with pleasant and positive things. This was an operation that summed up a series of events where the State was in a battle of wills with those who use terror as a means of demand or influence. The chain of events and their absolutely terrifying denouement resulted in making me reflect on this specific incident , and by extension , on terrorism. The tragedy unfurled in a theatre. The spectators and the kidnappers ended up as victims, some innocent, others immolated. The crisis led to another crisis, more frightening, cruel and gratuitous than the one that had preceded it. I stated my total and unconditional rejection of the violence, that’s to say my rejection of terrorism and its consequences. This declaration, which in a healthy society would be gratuitous, is necessary these days. I thought about the exhausted captives, sitting in their places in the theatre, I thought about how, in the most terrible way, a terrorist group had acted out a with an open and unforeseen ending. Terror is the response that, in some cases, we apply to terror. This paradox is the essence of Pushkin’s Boris Godunov, an impostor assails power ready to overthrow a corrupt government and everybody, including himself, knows that he won’t be any better than those he intends to replace. The Dubrovka tragedy took place in a theatre, in a theatre which was attacked, and this situation seemed to me to be the most terrible of the scenic proposals. The audience, who attended in order to enjoy a musical fiction, ended up being sucked into a play with an ending they had neither chosen nor asked for. This Boris Godunov began to take shape when I conceived the possibility of offering the audience a micro-sample, softened by fiction, of that which another audience had to experience in a Moscow theatre. ?LEX OLLÉ BORIS GODUNOV – THE MUSIC This work needs to be treated with great delicacy; since it has been based on those tragic events that occurred in the year 2002, when a Chechen terrorist commando entered the Moscow’s Dubrovka theatre and took as hostages more than 700 people. We all know how this human tragedy ended.... I chose to create a very hyper-realist soundtrack that generated effects and atmospheres that respected the theatrical action and did not bring gratuitous musical adornments, so that the spectator would have an as real as possible sonic perception of the violence, of the fear and the anxiety that was suffered. Within the work another theatrical work was recreated, which was represented when the kidnappers burst into the theatre: Boris Godunov, the 1831 Pushkin work of the same name which deals with the unfettered ambition to gain power, creating a certain parallel with the reality represented. Another source of inspiration was Mussorgsky’s Godunov, thus creating a underlying relation between past and present. JOSEP SANOU