Ten milestones of regional culture

Date:

A selection of initiatives, exhibitions, concerts and moments that received unanimous applause and marked the public for their originality, courage and quality

The region of Murcia, so often questioned from within and without, offers a wide and diverse cultural offer that will bring us in 2022 a dozen initiatives worth remembering that have generated unanimous applause. Sometimes carambola, impossible combinations, risky meetings, which were sometimes part of the programming of public spaces, sometimes private, and which in most cases left the audience speechless. The year we left behind us confirmed this commitment to promoting the region of Murcia as a land of festivals, and especially of all the possibilities of flamenco art, considered by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. We were able to enjoy masterful performances, such as those of Marta Nieto in San Javier and Murcia, and the cast of ‘Paraíso perdido’, directed by Andrés Lima. Unforgettable exhibitions such as ‘Ancestors’ at the Archaeological Museum of Murcia, and impromptu performances such as the one that led Cristóbal Gabarrón to paint ‘Flowers against Bombs’, an anti-war mural, on a day full of rain and mud.

The appointment was on February 6 at the Víctor Villegas Auditorium. None other than the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra in St. Petersburg, conducted by the acclaimed Valery Gergiev. It was the last concert of the seven tour that the prestigious music group gave in Spain. The program includes the ‘First concerto for violin and orchestra in A minor, op. 77’ by Dmitri Shostakovich and the ‘Fifth Symphony in C-sharp minor’ by Gustav Mahler, of generally accepted beauty. The concert was a great success. Days later, Russia invaded Ukraine and Valery Gergiev publicly declared his support for Putin.

Pere Arquillué, Cristina Plazas, Lucía Juárez, Rubén de Eguia, Elena Tarrats and Laura Font starred in ‘Paradise Lost’ on August 25 at the 52nd Festival of Theatre, Music and Dance of San Javier. The excellent staging, based on the epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ by John Milton, and directed by Andrés Lima, not only tells, in such a way that you don’t look away, between reverie, the note of ‘music hall’, the apparition of a comic strip and a timeless and dazzling atmosphere, the fall of men and women forever after Adam and Eve eat the apple, but also that of Satan to hell.

The Archaeological Museum of Murcia (MAM) organizes an exceptional exhibition: ‘Ancestors’, which shows archaeological pieces of great value recovered and later restored, from important sites such as the Sima de las Palomas, in Torre Pacheco; the Cueva del Arco, in Cieza; the Anton Cave, in Mula; Las Toscas, by Molina de Segura; the Cueva Pernera, in Mazarron; or the Cueva de los Aviones, in Cartagena. The professor of prehistory at the UMU Ignacio Martín Lerma, who has had the collaboration of João Zilhão and Luis de Miquel, is the curator. All a success.

Brutal in the chill, brutal in every tear, in every howl that springs from the most intimate, brutal in the panic that flows from his lips. Brutal when he refuses to cooperate with injustice, with lies, with those in power, with cowards. Murcian actress Marta Nieto triumphed on stages across the country in 2022 starring Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho’s “La infamia” – a lifetime of defending human rights at all costs – where she talks about her experiences with kidnapping and horror. Very special for the actress were the performances in which she played in the region: at the San Javier Festival and at the Romea Theater in Murcia. Shiny.

José Mercé, Farruquito, Remedios Amaya, Niño de Elche, Rosario La Tremendita, Duquende, Eduardo Guerrero, Mayte Martín, Israel Fernández, Diego del Morao, Rocío Márquez & Bronquio… are some of the artists who have visited the different festivals , summits and flamenco cycles celebrated with great success in the region: Cante de las Minas de la Unión Festival, Lo Ferro Flamenco Festival, Murcia Flamenco Summit, Alhama Flamenco Week, Quiero Flamenco Lorca Festival, Cartagena Jonda Flamenco Cycle and Mediterranean Flamenco Festival.

At the beginning of October, the University of Murcia welcomed two new ‘honoris causa’ doctors, the economist Paul de Grauwe [tiene el mismo reconocimiento de otras cinco universidades europeas] and the writer Maryse Condé, in a public act in which the sponsors were Professor José García Solanes and Professor Antonia Pagán López respectively. The writer from the island of Guadalupe invoked the value of freedom, alluded to “literary cannibalism”, to the evils of colonial propaganda, and remembered her parents and her life between Guadeloupe, Africa, the United States and Europe. Finally, Condé spoke of her happiness at being recognized for the first time by a foreign university. She is a forerunner of women’s issues and orality in the Antilles and gives a voice to sectors of Creole and African societies. Novelist and educator, her female figures have a critical awareness of the world in the face of inequality, breaking the silence about the female condition. In 2018, the French-based Guadalupana author, author of books such as ‘Corazón que ría, corazón que llora’, ‘Yo, Tituba’ and ‘La vida acelerata’, published by Impedimenta in Spain, won the Alternative Nobel Prize. The first dissertation on his work in Spain was defended in 2014 by Isaac Cremades at the University of Murcia, who continues his connection with an ever-strong voice for his desire for justice and the need to restore slavery. Another take on multiculturalism that continues to feed and appease readers, and that also speaks to the open-mindedness of the university institution.

At the end of August and the beginning of September, the ECOS de Sierra Espuña International Festival of Early Music once again presented exceptional pieces that are interpreted unusually on stage over three weekends. Aledo, Alhama de Murcia, Librilla, Mula, Pliego and Totana organized the sixth edition of this festival led by Jorge Losana with playful shows to bring early music closer to children. Examples of the international character of this event were the performances of groups such as the Delle Donne Consort, a recorder ensemble consisting of four young musicians from Belgium, Hungary and Italy; Liturina, a chamber music group founded in London (UK); and Trio Aido, founded in Basel (Switzerland). The festival, where Cantoría and Anacronía performed, recently received the European Rema Award for the ECOS Labs initiative as Best Artist Development Program.

After years of being the pinnacle of the Paris Opera Ballet, the dancer and choreographer from Cartagena, José Carlos Martínez, returned to the French capital in October to direct the institute, becoming the first Spaniard to hold this prestigious position. Before his appointment, on July 6 and 7, his latest creation as a choreographer, ‘El Corsario’, performed by the National Ballet of the Slovenian Opera, conducted by the Víctor Villegas Auditorium in Murcia, could be enjoyed by Renato Zanella. . The audience in the Auditorium stood up, reported LA VERDAD dance critic Margarita Muñoz Zielinski, to applaud this “gift” from the Cartagena artist. An updated creation, without neglecting tradition, based on Lord Byron’s poem and enjoyed in 2022 only in two Spanish cities: Granada and Murcia.

On St. John’s Day, Friday, June 24, the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia closed the season with a very special concert at the Víctor Villegas Auditorium. The musicians of the Symphony, together with the Youth Orchestra of the Region of Murcia (OJRM) – which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year – under the direction of Virginia Martínez, and the 25 voices of a female choir under the direction of Balbina Serva, united their talent to from Yecla’s set designer and director, Paco Azorín, to create a ‘symphonic happening’ around the work ‘Los planetas’, by Gustav Holst, dedicated to the stars that make up the solar system. A sensory experience for the public who, as soon as they entered, could enjoy a large mural that took up the floor of the Auditorium lobby, as well as other surprises that made this a curious and different proposition.

The first ‘action painting’ of the international project ‘Ambito’, with which the Cristóbal Gabarrón Foundation commemorates its thirtieth anniversary, gathered on February 26, two days after the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Putin, in the neighborhood of Las Malezas de la El Niño de Mula, to a group of writers, artists, researchers, thinkers, naturalists, biologists and journalists. Eight creators on stage −Cristóbal Gabarrón, Carlos Aganzo, Manuela Salvado, Raúl de Tapia, Joaquín Araujo, Juan Jesús Yelo, José Joaquín Aroca Amorós and Damián Lajara– performed an improvised and performative action. The artistic impulse was aimed at the conservation of nature and, inevitably, at the war that had just broken out on European territory. The result: ‘Flowers against bombs’, a mural made in nature, in a sea of ​​almond blossoms. Infused with the scent of the countryside, the early rain and the desire to create, this activity with nature as its leitmotif was an original start for an ambitious project that will travel the world, with the opposite of “ordered creations”. “Whatever happens,” that is the maximum importance of the proposal, said Cristóbal Gabarrón, apart from the comfort and solitude of the studio. Improvisation, “and emerging flowers in search of the climax”. An experience that is hard to forget.

Source: La Verdad

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related

Can lift 1000 tons – US: Giant crane clears after bridge collapse

After the bridge collapsed in the port of the...

15-year-old victim – attack with knife over a Gucci cap

A 15-year-old boy was threatened with a knife by...

Early start of the season: asparagus as competition for wild garlic

This year the vegetation in Upper Austria is two...