AURIC (Songs From A Golden Age) is a Gig Theatre Show based on poetry from the Spanish Golden Age period, translated and adapted to English by Paula Rodriguez. The texts have been reinvented from a modern socio-political perspective, as an experience that merges spoken-word and experimental music – composed by Arthur Astier.
Freedom, identity, power and other timeless questions revisited through classical poetry and music.
Spanish Golden Age authors such as Miguel de Cervantes, Calderón de la Barca, and Lope de Vega created universal masterpieces that still resonate strongly in the present day. These authors were the rock stars of their time, free spirits who portrayed an eternal landscape of mankind’s lights and shadows. In AURIC, experimental music (inspired by blues, indie-rock, flamenco or trance) merges with this classical legacy, to create a truly evocative journey reflecting on poignant political, social and intimate themes.
Paula Rodriguez, AURIC’s creator, is a Spanish Actress and Theatre-Maker based in London. Her work focuses on translating, adapting and staging classical plays for contemporary and international audiences. The current landscape is particularly challenging for Theatre and Live Performance, which is why Paula is exploring a new formats with this project. The piece has been presented Live in person, Live-streamed, pre-recorded in HD. The AURIC VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE can be found now (until 27.06.2021) at Brighton Fringe Festival.
AURIC comes also in the shape of a book and an album, both available to purchase online. AURIC THE BOOK contains a compilation of the original Spanish Golden Age texts (which inspired the adaptation) and Paula’s modern adaptations, which are accompanied by beautiful illustrations from artist Maya Goldstein. AURIC THE ALBUM is a studio recorded version of the eight original tracks in live performance. Additionally, the documentary AURIC (Songs from a Golden Age) A LIVE STORY is available on AURIC’s YouTube Channel and talks about rehearsing and performing live during 2020.
“AURIC, is a response to the need I have of revitalizing my own heritage in the world and context in which I live now. My experience as a Spanish Actor and Theatre-Maker working with Shakespeare in the UK gives me a privileged perspective to explore how Golden Age and Elizabethan Theatre could merge. During the Renaissance period, the connection between Spain and England was very strong, and whether at war or at peace, both empires understood the world in a similar light. The parallels between Shakespeare and the Spanish Golden Age authors are tangible, therefore using Shakespeare as a reference has allowed me to find great fluidity when translating the Spanish classical verse into English.
I have selected extracts from plays by Cervantes, Calderón de la Barca and Lope de Vega. These texts reflect on poignant topics, such as the lack of transparency from those who are in power and our increasing need to feel freedom within an oppressive system. But politics are not the only matter, as these materials reflect on eternal themes including identity, gender and love, which are intensely present in Lope’s poems.
My main objective in this project is to introduce these texts to an international audience who might not be familiar with them. I have therefore created a performance in which the universal power of music mixes with the echoes of classical words in translation. Verse is rhythm, these texts are a score, we have taken it just an inch further allowing contemporary music to expand the possibilities of and embellish upon each poem, each monologue. From Don Quixote to Segismundo, we give a new voice to these characters, knowing that their worries, longings and dreams are not far from ours.
Exploring this project through the digital medium has opened a wider landscape of possibilities to my work, not only with this specific piece but in general. I am amazed at the possibilities that virtuality offers us as artists. Obviously, loosing the in person experience is just not an option but I wonder if we could create a more direct conversation between live events in venues and online content. Having access to art from your screen opens an endless source of information and increases accessibility. For a project like AURIC in which a great deal of research is involved, touching on different areas such as the Classics, translation and music, it has been great to explore all the different formats in which the project could be presented. I believe the virtual versions of the show and the digital materials we have created (the book, album and documentary) are a key factor in our artistic growth. The digital platform boosts the project’s main objective: to reach new international audiences, offering a new perspective of this legacy, through a unique experience transcending space and time”.
Paula Rodriguez
More information on AURIC (Songs from a Golden Age) web
Purchase Album, Book and Merchandising at AURIC STORE
AURIC (Songs from a Golden Age) VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE
Created, Produced, and Performed by Paula Rodriguez Music Composed and Performed by Arthur Astier Filmed by Tom Pollard
Translation and Adaptation by Paula Rodriguez Translation Support by Ben Naylor
Graphic Design by Maya Goldstein
International Producer: Lorenzo Pappagallo Xperteatro
IberoDocs, Scotland’s Ibero-American Documentary Film Festival, will be running for the first time online in the entire UK and Ireland from the 19 April to 2 May. The 2 weeks-long event will open with the UK premiere of Maricarmen by Sergio Morkin; in partnership with Instituto Cervantes Manchester & Leeds. The film is a close-up into the life of a blind cellist as she navigates love, loss and relationships in contemporary Mexico.
The Festival, which has consistently celebrated equality, diversity and accessibility as its core values, will apply them even further when bringing this years’ festival to life since all the feature-length films in the main programme will include subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and the opening film will also have an audio description available.
“It’s crucial to us that art remains universal so as a festival we are deeply committed to break down barriers and make it as accessible and inclusive as possible”, said Festival director Mar Felices.
Reshaping the festival through an online format
The pandemic has brought on several challenges for the festival, but it has also allowed for the original team to be reunited for the first time since it was established in 2013 – as the first showcase of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin-American documentaries in the country – with Mon Rivas as Programmer and Isabel Moura Mendes as Festival Host alongside Mar Felices.
Moreover, as this year IberoDocs is reaching a wider geographical area by hosting the festival online, some of the films will be available to watch in 22 Ibero-American countries including Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Peru and Brazil.
Programme
As the worldwide pandemic highlighted the vulnerability of the creative arts sector as well as its invaluable contribution, this year the main programme explores Art as a Need in 11 feature length documentaries which also challenge stereotypes surrounding society’s notion of artists.
The main programme includes films such as Free Color (Alberto Arvelo, 2020) a candid tribute to renowned Venezuelan kinetic artist Carlos-Cruz Diez, as he tirelessly pursues his dream project at 94-years-old; Discovering José Padilla (Marta Figueras, Susana Guardiola, 2020) a musical that rediscovers the composer behind Chaplin’s City Lights through a female gaze; When You Listen (Sergi Cameron, 2020) a controversial piece depicting visionary musician El Niño de Elche’s self-discovery journey through sound and play; Light Sensitive Ages (Pedro Sara, Violeta Pagán, 2019) a deep portrait of young people marked by migration, gender violence, the search for sexuality, family or art; or Nothing But the Sun, Arami Ullón’s most recent film about the hitherto silenced culture of the Ayoreo people; amongst other titles.
Accompanying the core programme, there is a special screening of the world premiere of Dreamed and Lived, by Ricardo Iscar and two short film programmes: A Spiritual Journey and The Endless Battle for which we have invited filmmaker Fernando Vilchez to curate a series of films around his work I Can Only Show you the Color; commemorating the bicentennial of Peru’s independence in 2021.
Out of the 21 films in the programme, which are all Scottish premieres, eight are UK premieres, four international premieres and one world premiere.
Other activities
In addition to the film programme, the festival will offer a series of complementary activities such as Q&As with filmmakers and artists – BSL interpreted – and a masterclass in collaboration with Scottish Documentary by Lupe Perez Diaz, winner of new waves best director at the Seville Film Festival 2020 with her film Never Look Back. Last but not least, this edition will include an accessible virtual exhibition of Martin Weber’s photographic journey across Latin-America alongside the screening of Map of Latin American Dreams. Both films are included in the main programme.
IberoDocs is funded by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland, Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua/ The University of Edinburgh, Embassy of Spain in London, Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Instituto Cervantes Manchester & Leeds and Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) / Edinburgh College of Art.
Collaborators include: Indy Cinema Group, The Skinny, Heriot-Watt University, Screen Language, City of Edinburgh Council, SCILT (Scotland’s National Centre for Languages), Bilingualism Matters, Filmhouse, Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts, WomenBeing, Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival, Havana Glasgow Film Festival, Galician Film Forum, Orbita Studios, Filmhub Scotland, Brit Es, Indaba Deli, Orinoco, Zest Edinburgh, Tupiniquim, Pacari.
Full info about: www.iberodocs.org
Masks For Music is an innovative opportunity offering all global music industry professionals a way to help relieve Pandemic financial insecurity, with a new affiliate solution.
Can you reminisce about the last event, music festival, or performance space you went to before the Pandemic began? Does the memory make you smile?
With the Blanco-White Series, the Cervantes Institute in London wants to delve into the stories and characters that, over time and to our day, have served to strengthen the links between Spain and Great Britain.
( T H I S ) P R E C I O U S S T O N E S E T I N T H E S I L V E R S E A
Irene de Andrés, Erola Arcalís, Inés Cámara Leret, Yorgos Petrou, Stéphanie Saadé, Oscar Santillán + Yoko Ono. Curated by Aina Pomar.
A giant peanut with a blue face and red lips resides as a deity over a vibrant world of cartoon-like creatures. This is Maní, the fictional civilization created by Spanish artist Ana Barriga in which society centres around the peanut. For her solo show at Kristin Hjellegjerde’s gallery in London Bridge, the artist presents a new series of imaginative paintings that visualize everyday life in the peanut community. Through these surreal scenarios, Barriga pokes fun at real-life conventions, offering the viewer the opportunity to both laugh at and question the foundations on which civilizations are built. The exhibition runs until the next 8th of February 2020.
Artists, curators, art valuers, critics, researchers and private collectors from Japan, Russia, Germany, USA, Italy, Israel, United Kingdom, and Spain participated in this gastronomic cross-culture event, held by Brit Es in the heart of Shoreditch.
Brit Es’s team, led by Carolina Núñez Roca and Vanesa Cejudo, created an event where the food menu was used as a schedule to introduce the artist’s conversations.
Last Monday, Brit Es hosted a very special event inspired by the cross-culture concept: a Supper Club created as a new way to connect with the artists and their practices. A new way to discover London’s Spanish art vibe in a new way: interacting with artists, tasting a secret menu and listening to the sound of a Steinway piano.
The event included conversations with four fabulous artists: Rosana Antolí, Gracjana Rejmer-Canovas, Ernesto Cánovas, Pablo A. Padilla Jargstorf, and a special menu created by Chef Antonio Sierra, who came from Extremadura for the event.
The Brit Es Supper Club was kindly sponsored by the Embassy of Spain in London, Bodega Soul, La Forja Restaurant and the collaboration of the Shoreditch Treehouse.
Playing piano: Sam Peña / Photos by Susana Sanromán
Special thanks to Deborah Rodríguez, Ben Ffrancon Davies and Ángel Villalba.
