LaMov | Compañía de Danza

..El Trovador · Álvaro Zaldívar
14 dancers. Dirección Artística: Álvaro Zaldívar Music: Verdi Scenography: Jorge Gay Custome design: Conchita de la Cueva Ligth design: José Castelltort

A ballet based on a Verdi opera.
In the history of opera, there are few works that continue to enjoy the prestige and popular admiration of Verdi's Il Trovatore. Since its first performance in the mid-nineteenth century, the passion of its characters and the beauty of its music have rightfully made it an obligatory feature in the programmes of the world's greatest opera houses. The History, plot and characters of an opera in dance.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the death of the King of Aragon, Martín I el Humano, led to a bloody conflict of succession that was to be finally resolved by the 'Compromiso de Caspe', an agreement which saw Fernando de Antequera take the throne, thereby laying waste to the aspirations of the Count of Urgel, who had been supported by powerful families such as the Lunas.

This complex, but typically violent history of medieval times, of kings and queens and nobility, would be used by the Andalusian dramatist Antonio García Gutierrez as the historical backdrop for his story of honour, love and revenge: El Trovador.

Gutiérrez produced an intense, Spanish romantic tragedy, both effective and affecting that was replete with contradictions, half-truths, hints of anti-semitism and Calderonian honour. The work was to enjoy enormous success in the Spain of the mid-nineteenth century. However, the drama's survival and continued, pre-eminent position on the great stages of the world is due to the wonderful, largely faithful, operatic adaptation by Giuseppe Verdi and his dutiful librettist Salvatore Cammarano. Il Travatore, whilst full of Belcantist lyrical and dramatic influences, places love and vengeance squarely at the centre the action and they become the hegemonic motor that drives the creation of the soundscape.

Little importance is given to the success or failure of the Count of Urgel - or even to those that are for or against him; what is important, is the fight of two men (the Count of Luna and the troubadour Manrique) for the heart of a woman (Leonora), a woman who knows only how to love or die.

This classic dramatic love triangle becomes a tragedy with the formation of a quartet on the arrival of Azucena, a gypsy, whose mother was burnt at the stake by the previous Count of Luna. As revenge for the death of her mother, Azucena kidnaps the present Count's younger brother with the aim of killing him, but a terrible (and somewhat implausible) mistake results in the burning and death of Azucena's own son. She then decides (equally implausibly) to keep the noble infant and bring him up as if he were her child. This young boy grows up to be the Travatore and protagonist of our story - the beloved (adopted) son of a woman that wanted to kill him and love rival of a man that he has never known, yet is his brother.

As the story advances against a backdrop of great battles, defeats and victories the conclusion of the inevitable tragedy looms ever closer: the Count imprisons Azucena and condemns her to death for the murder of his brother. The Travatore makes a failed attempt to rescue her and is himself imprisoned. Leonora, who is in love with Manrique, agrees to marry the Count in order to save the troubadour but then decides to take her own life (by drinking poison) rather than honour her agreement when Manrique is freed.

The terrible climax takes place in the imposing Aljafería Palace (now known as the Torreón del Trovador). Leonora dies after a bitter argument with Manrique, who believes he has paid for his life with his honour. Love has now gone, only vengeance remains; the Count decides on an extra punishment for his sibling's killer by forcing her to witness the death of her son before she is herself executed. It is however, the gypsy who exacts the ultimate revenge by revealing to the Count that he has just taken the life of his long-lost, much-loved younger brother.

The version in dance, which we present, is a free and open re-creation of the plot, based on a modern perspective of the original register of Verdi's music. The characters assume profiles that are, logically, altered in accordance with the demands of the transition from the spoken word and chorally expressed lyric to the language of gesture and colour.

We begin with Azucena, the gypsy. Victor Jiménez's choreography makes her, first and foremost, a 'mother'; a passionate protector, intuitively divinatory (more for being a mother than a gypsy) and a woman for whom revenge (a Verdian motivator) is superseded by love.

And this love is a young, complete love, a love full of life; it is daring and valiant and is personified by Manrique, Il Travatore. The young troubadour is the protagonist of the story that bears his name though in reality, he is a naïve and powerless pawn, caught up in the battle of fervent emotions that overwhelm the actors in this tragedy.

As an evident symbol of wounded love, humiliation and failed ambition, we have the Count of Luna. His love is based on power, and it is a power that is, in turn, based on inheritance rather than valour. He suffers pain and hurt, though perhaps this is not so much because he is an evil man but because he is never able to be himself - he is forever hidden by his societal, public mask and obliged to act by those who fear him, rather than love him.

Set between the two suitors we find pure, unadulterated love in the form of Leonor; a woman in love with the son of a gypsy; a woman who rejects the gallant, noble courtship of a Count. She is in love, but she is also defenceless, motivated only by love; she would opt for the celibacy of religious order if she were to lose her love and she finally gives her life so that he may survive.

Alongside Leonor we find her friend and confidante Inés, her faithful cohort and keeper of the most profound secrets.

To these characters we must add the silent witnesses of the theatre; the ardent choirs of the opera and the voiceless dancers of the ballet - the simple gypsies, the ghostly nuns of the convent and the rugged soldiers, transformed into a civil army of innocent victims who suffer the consequences of wars but are never able to enjoy the glory.