“Extinción”, a baroque and contemporary… opera?
“Extinction”… contemporary opera… with baroque music by Friar Juan Cererols. The Teatro Real‘s current opera programming is not, generally speaking, too daring. Presumably it is the tastes of patrons and traditional audiences that are, to a large extent, the “power in the shadows”. The risk that is not taken musically…
The Teatro Real’s mockery of an unique generation
The Teatro Real’s mockery of an unrepeatable generation of Spanish composers. Between 17 March and 10 October 2021 three of the leading Spanish composers of the 20th century passed away, Antón García Abril (Teruel, 19 May 1933-Madrid, 17 March 2021), Cristóbal Halffter (Madrid, 24 March 1930-Villafranca del Bierzo, 23 May…
Rescues from the archive: Philip Glass in 1986
Happy 85th birthday, Mr. Glass! In January 1986 Philip Glass visited Spain to promote his work, invited by the CBS record company, whose Masterworks label had begun to release his first two operas, Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha. The interview I conducted with him, the first of three occasions…
John P. Falcone
John P. Falcone. John P. Falcone answers questions from J. G. Entonado: I totally agree with the notion that art is for everyone, and the idea of “elitist art” is something that classical musicians (like myself) are constantly fighting against. I wish we would stop putting tails for concerts, although…
Miquel Àngel Marín
Miquel Àngel Marín. Miquel Àngel Marín answers questions from J. G. Entonado: Javier, I like very much what you raise, these are questions that also interest me especially. You talk about trumpets. Talking about musical instruments seems important to me. It is like talking about the house in which one…
P. Quinteros y P. Blanche
Pilar Quinteros and Patricio Blanche. Fragments of conversation of J.G. Entonado with Pilar Quinteros and Patricio Blanche: Well, as I have said many times… art, if necessary, must be taken off its pedestal and put on the ground. And if it is necessary to step on it and spit on…
VANG #8
Ensemble Phace and Peter Ablinger. Peter Ablinger is a musician of great conceptual finesse who approaches the dialectic between sound action and musical performance. Understanding action as an idea of sound creation that is executed objectively, in which the subjectivity of the interpreter is abolished; and performance as a personal…
Elsa Mateu
Elsa Mateu. Opinions about Free Improvisation, music and art. I do listen to a lot of free improvised music. I try to go to as many concerts and sessions as I can and I listen to the work of friends and colleagues. But I also listen to a wide variety…
Rubén García Bartolomé
Rubén García Bartolomé «Impressions on art and free improvisation». I don’t think it is necessary to listen to improvised music to be a good improviser. I for my part have listened to everything, genres of all kinds and periods, noises and very diverse sounds. We spend our lives listening to things,…
Fred Frith in Madrid
Fred Frith in Madrid. IMPROVISATION IN THE «FREE IMPROVISATION» In the art nouveau Manuel de Falla hall of the Langoria Palace in Madrid (headquarters of the Spanish Society of Authors), Fred Frith was awaited with enthusiasm. It was necessary to be there to hear and see the master of Free…
Clara de Asís
The place where it is not expected. Reflections on «Winterreise». THE CRYSTAL OF SNOWFLAKES The title of the recital offered by Clara de Asís on September 29th in the auditorium of the CentroCentro in Madrid is disturbing: The Place Where One Does Not Wait, a place without waiting or hope,…