Pau Casals He was exiled in January 1939; He settled in Prades, a town of the Eastern Pyrenees. He had just recorded the ‘Suites for cello alone’ of Johann Sebastian Bacha piece that he rediscovered and would become the backbone of the … Catalan musician repertoire. A year later, when the Nazi army entered Paris, tried to leave France and move to the United States, but the ship in which he had to travel was bombarded by the Germans and forced him to remain in Prades, in a house called Villa Colette. There he received, in November 1943, the visit of three military from the government of Adolf Hitlerthat they wanted to invite the cellist to play against the Führer; Pau Casals, who ten years before had already rejected another invitation from the German dictator -decision that earned him to be considered “enemy of the new Germany” -, he told him again.
This episode has inspired ‘Music for Hitler‘, a work written by Yolanda García Serrano and Juan Carlos Rubio -And directed by this same- that, after its premiere in Santander three weeks ago, reaches the Channel theaterswhere he will be on the poster from April 2 to 20. Carlos Hipólito embodies Pau Casals; Kiti Mánver It is Francesca Capdevila ‘Titi’, the then couple of the musician -they married in Mortis article in October 1954, shortly before she died-; Cristóbal Suárez Encarna Johann, the Nazi officer who visits Casals; and Marta Velilla It is Enriqueta Casals, a celloist niece.
Rubio and García Serrano wrote ‘Music for Hitler’ ten years ago, but various circumstances have delayed the premiere so far. The authors start from that visit to draw a portrait of Pau Casals, “a person committed to music and excellence,” says Juan Carlos Rubio, “and who also always demonstrated a vital commitment to freedoms and peace. Casals never wanted to play in a country that was with a dictatorial regime ». In fact, in 1917 he decided not to play again in Russia as rejection of his policies, and in 1933, after the arrival of Hitler, he rejected the invitation of Wilhelm Furtwängler To play with the Berlin Philharmonic and decided not to do it again in Germany while “his musical life is not free.”
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach and, specifically, the ‘Suite number 1 for cello’, plans on the work, also divided by the movements of the composition, which are heard throughout the function: Prelude, Alemande, Co -During, Zarabanda and Gallant Dance (the musical piece concludes with a giga). Casals rediscovered the suites and turned them back into the musical monument that they are today. Illustrious chelists like MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH, Pierre Fournier, Yo-Yo Ma either Mischa Maiskand have incorporated them into their repertoire. Casals discovered them in a Barcelona store when he was 13 years old, but did not dare to record them until 1936, already sixty years old. «Music is, logically -explains Juan Carlos Rubio -a great protagonist in the function. It is something that makes us find a common place to human beings ». “And Casals made them a weapon for peace, was always a great activist,” Carlos Hipólito intervenes.
The Madrid actor has not become a cellist, but both he and Cristóbal Suárez (his character touched that instrument in his civil life) have received the advice of Bárbaro Enrico. especially in relation to the posture of the body or the placement of the hands, rather than in the interpretation of the instrument; In the function the cello of Pau Casals sounds, “but sometimes the protagonist says,” it seems that we are the ones who play. ”
The actor – who had not acted so far in the theaters of the Canal – considers ‘music for Hitler’ a «dream project. The characters are four works of art, they grow as the function takes place. Interpreting Pau Casals is at the same time a gift and responsibility ». The entrails always, continues, embody a real character, “but the actors have to make the character that the authors of the text have written.” «Casals was a genius, a special, committed and coherent being; In this function we discover its most human part, its sorrows, its fears, its inner strength ».
Neither Juan Carlos Rubio have wanted to make an imitation of Pau Casals; The only concession has been to put the actor some glasses. “We look for the character of skin to inside, not with skin outside,” explains the director; «To make an imitation in the theater is to be bound to failure,” Hipólito says. We worried us to capture and tell this character. Casals was a greatly emotional person. In the recording of the ‘Suite number 1‘He is heard sobbing when he plays; That tells much more about him than his way of walking or moving. What happened to him, not on the outside, is the really important thing ».
‘Music for Hitler’ presents us, says Rubio, a sad pau Casals. The authors read everything they could about the musician. «You can reach the characters from many places: we wanted to tell a way of being, but this work is fiction. The Pau Casals that we have drawn is A fallen herohowever, to face their fears; Despite Hitler’s refusal, nothing happened.
Johann is the name chosen by the authors to name the antagonist of this function, “a complex but beautiful character,” says his interpreter, Cristóbal Suárez. «Count, he says,” a very simple and very beautiful story at the same time; it’s a Moral story that tells us that it can always be chosen, and that there is no cluster of stupidity that is able to break the connection between human beings ».
Take the word Carlos Hipólito: «We hope that the function will reflect the spectators -although in the premiere we have discovered that the work has more humor than we thought; It is a text that can put us alert today, in which we live circumstances that look like those of the time ». “The human being does not learn from his mistakes, and today there are still wars, more than we think … anyway, with this work we do not want to give answers, but to throw questions.”
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