«It has happened to us several times; In the middle of the rehearsal, the theater lights have gone out, but it doesn’t matter: the technicians place some LED lamps that illuminate only what is necessary so that people don’t fall, and we continue rehearsing in the dark as if nothing had happened. Ignacio García tells it from kyiv, which this Friday premiered at the National Academic Operetta Theater of kyiv.Shafranova Troyand‘ -phonetic transcription of the Ukrainian translation of ‘The saffron rose‘.
«And when the alarms sound – García continues his story – we go down to the shelter and sometimes we give notes there. It is a very peculiar way of working, but it is very exciting to see how Ukrainian artists endure and continue despite all the difficulties. There are singers and dancers who have their husband or father in front of them; The conductor himself has been at the front with the rifle… And a dancer has her partner captured by the Russian Army. And yet there they are.
The Madrid director does not hesitate to define this staging as “a unique experience and above all a life lesson.” But how does a zarzuela located in the countryside of La Mancha reach a country as far away and also shaken by a war as Ukraine? «The initiative – says García – is part of the Spanish Embassy in Ukraine – the current ambassador is Ricardo López-Arandason of the playwright of the same name. This is my eighth trip in the three years we have been at war; I also staged ‘Life is a Dream’ at the National Theater and just a year ago I directed a zarzuela gala with the Operetta Theater ensembles and a Ukrainian director. They discovered then, as happens in many places, that zarzuela is a first-class musical genre. You bring them the scores of ‘Doña Francisquita‘, ‘The Dolores‘, ‘The one with the bunch of roses‘…and they are stupefied. As a result of that gala we started talking. They learned that the Zarzuela Theater was doing ‘The Saffron Rose’ and they liked the music and the rural-themed story, which connected very well with certain values of the agrarian society that historically exists here in Ukraine, which has been the breadbasket of Europe. Also, by the way, saffron is grown in the West, in Transcarpathia. Those responsible for the theater decided to bet on this title. Both the Teatro de la Zarzuela and the Foundation and all the creators, García adds, “have been very generous and have given up all their rights.”
Own scenery
The production is the same as the one that premiered at the Zarzuela (scenography by Nicolas Bonilocker room Rosa García Andujarlighting Albert Faura and choreography Sara Cano), but Ignacio García highlights that «in times of war, the scenery – a little smaller, because the stage is smaller – and the costumes have been manufactured here; His intention is for the work to remain in repertoire. “We are rehearsing with four different casts because the idea is that starting in January it will be performed once or twice a month.” He Operetta Theaterhe says, is a repertory theater. “The artists have been rehearsing ‘The Saffron Rose’ in the morning and in the afternoon performing ‘Chicago’, the musical.”
“The enthusiasm with which they work is impressive,” the Madrid director once again admires. They are truly proletarians of the theater, with an exceptional artistic level and an extraordinary capacity for dedication. It is something very nice to see that, in the midst of the hardness, of the many personal dramas, there is an awareness that, on the one hand, we must give the public a little bit of spiritual peace in the midst of so much desolation; that you need distraction, to be able to disconnect for a while, you need joy, you need beauty. And on the other hand, they also know that this war is being fought on two fronts; on the military front, on the front line, and on a front of a cultural battle for the survival of Ukraine as a country, as an identity and as a different space, as a model different from the Russian one, from which they want to separate. They are trying to find a new cultural framework and open it to the world. “A new country model is being defined.”
The Spanish repertoire could have a place here, adds Ignacio García, “and this production can mark a path. Ukrainians are ‘the Latins of the Slavic world’. They have an emotional effervescence and understand the work very well. I was very surprised by how well they had understood the plots of the play, both dramatic and comic. The words of Don Quixote that Don Generoso pronounces: ‘Blessed age… Everything was peace then, all friendship, all concord’, imagine how they resonate here. Or when he says: ‘Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts’… The silence that occurs in the rehearsals when listening to it is impressive.
#saffron #rose #zarzuela #alarms #blackouts #kyiv
