The Filmoteca and Les Arts present their first film series in conjunction with the opera season
17.09.2019
The Filmoteca of the Institut Valencià de Cultura and the Palau de les Arts present their first film series around the 2019-2020 season of musical theatre.
The 'Les Arts en La Filmoteca' series is part of the theater's commitment to enhancing its role as a catalyst for Valencian cultural life, as well as expanding and diversifying its collaboration with cultural institutions.
From September 2019 to June 2020, the screening room of the Rialto Building programmed six titles, inspired by or evocative of the historical events, conflicts or themes addressed by the main operas of Les Arts.
To mark the imminent premiere of Mozart's 'Le nozze di Figaro', which inaugurates the operatic offering, La Filmoteca presents 'La Marseillaise' by Jean Renoir, on September 20 and 21.
The seed of revolutionary ideas and their dissemination is the link between Renoir's Marseille and the imagined Seville portrayed by Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Both works depict, in different spheres of Western culture, the atmosphere conducive to a revolution that would change the course of history, first in Europe and then in America.
The purpose of this series, as stated by the artistic director of Les Arts, Jesús Iglesias Noriega, is to delve deeper into the different themes and conflicts addressed by each of the operas in the 2019-2020 Season. This activity is part of the 'Les Arts és per a tots' initiative, through which the theater seeks to give back to the community for its support of the project.
For his part, the general director of the IVC, Abel Guarinos, expressed his satisfaction at “expanding the collaboration with Les Arts, on this occasion, with a cycle of La Filmoteca that reflects a wide diversity of currents, eras and cinematic styles, and which includes a heterogeneous selection of great films related in some way to the operas programmed by Les Arts this season.”
Thus, Lukas Dhont's debut film, 'Girl' (2018), about a transgender girl's desire to become a dancer, will be screened on November 14 and 15 as a prologue to the performances of 'Les mamelles de Tirésias' by Poulenc, which tells a surreal exchange of sexes.
On December 7 and 13, David Wark Griffith's centenary film 'Intolerance' (1916) will serve as an introduction to Verdi's 'Nabucco', with which it shares, in addition to its monumental conception and 'peplum' aesthetic, its analysis of the conflict between dominated peoples and their dominator.
Luis García Berlanga's 'Novio a la vista' (1954) will complement the performances of Rossini's comic opera 'Il viaggio a Reims' on March 1st and 7th. The social clashes that Berlanga presents on the fictional beach of Lindamar, with the Great War as a backdrop, are mirrored in the encounters and confrontations among the European aristocracy gathered at the Il Giglio D'Oro resort to celebrate the coronation of Charles X of France.
The premiere of Handel's 'Ariodante' will serve as a pretext for a production by the ever-irreverent Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam: 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1975), on May 6 and 9. The Monty Python-esque satire, with its biting critique of modern life, provides a counterpoint to Handel's delicate score, which Les Arts will nevertheless present in a production set in the mid-20th century.
The cycle closes with 'Born Yesterday' (1950), by George Cukor, which will be shown on June 4 and 6 as a prelude to the performances of the first opera by Valencian Vicente Martín i Soler, 'Il tutore burlato', with which it shares the theme of the figure of the guardian woman.
