Les Arts revives the era of Viennese literary cabaret with the show ‘Cabaré Pierrot’

Les Arts és Òpera

• Pablo Rus Broseta conducts this double bill featuring Zemlinsky's 'Ein Lichtstrahl' and Schoenberg's masterpiece, 'Pierrot lunaire'
• Soprano Sonia de Munck and actors Pepe Viyuela and José Luis Montiel perform in this intelligent staging by Tomás Muñoz

Valencia (10.02.25). The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía revives the times of Viennese literary cabaret with 'Cabaré Pierrot', an intelligent production by the Juan March Foundation, which will be performed on February 14 and 15 at the Teatre Martín i Soler.

Les Arts premieres this suggestive double bill consisting of 'Ein Lichtstrahl', a mime show written by Oskar Geller and set to music by Alexander Zemlinsky, and 'Pierrot lunaire', one of the masterpieces of Arnold Schoenberg, the 'father' of the 20th century musical avant-garde, which was based on poems by the Belgian Albert Giraud, translated into German by Otto Erich Hartleben.

Stage director Tomás Muñoz presents an intelligent staging, supported by Gabriela Salaverri's elegant costumes, to transport the audience to the splendor of the early 20th-century lyric-literary theater era, thanks to the vibrant performance of soprano Sonia de Munck and actors Pepe Viyuela and José Luis Montiel.

Pablo Rus Broseta from Valencia, after his excellent work on Falla's 'El retablo de maese Pedro', leads an ensemble of musicians from the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and pianist Eduardo Fernández in this exuberant musical proposal.

The March Foundation is taking over the production of 'Cabaré Pierrot' in which the apogee of literary cabaret in the Old Continent and the intertwined biographies of two composers from interwar Europe converge: Schoenberg married Mathilde, sister of Zemlinsky in 1908.

In 'Ein Lichtstrahl', an original 'mimodrama', as Zemlinsky himself called it, the Austrian anticipates the revolutionary fusion of music and image of early silent cinema, by telling us about an infidelity only discovered by 'Ein Lichtstrahl' (A Ray of Light).

Composed ten years later, in 'Pierrot Lunaire', it is one of Arnold Schoenberg's landmark works. The score revolves around the famous character from the Italian 'commedia dell'arte'. In it, Schoenberg introduces one of his revolutionary contributions, the 'Sprechgesang' (spoken song), halfway between recitation and melody, as well as the adoption of an atonal expressionist aesthetic.

From the combination of these two unique works emerges 'Cabaré Pierrot', an innovative artistic endeavor at Les Arts, which will be presented on February 14 and 15 at the Teatre Martín i Soler, with tickets at a single price of 25 euros.