Last Thursday, the Tívoli theater hosted the Barcelona premiere of the Spanish production of the musical The Choir Boys, after its success in Madrid, Valladolid and Bilbao, and supported by more than 150,000 spectators. The premiere in Barcelona predicts that these weeks in which the Casp Street theater will offer this production until April 7 will expand the path of success that this musical began in Paris.
In 2004, Christophe Barratier directed the film Choir Boys, which previously had a small production. On this occasion, the story of the El Fondo del Lago men's boarding school became a great international success, and in France, it also marked a before and after in terms of choral music. The popular choirs were revitalized and multiplied, thanks to this story in which music became the best educational instrument in that boarding school for children with problems, governed with an iron fist by its director, in post-war France, to which faces a teacher who trusts in music as a healing instrument for those children with problems.
Barratier himself was responsible for turning the film into a musical or, better, “theater with songs,” as the director of the AMR Produce production, Juan Luis Iborra, points out: “Our show does not need large numbers, nor cars that fly, nor great light games. All the songs are sung by children and adults, inserted into the plot. There is no fade to black or anything like that.”
Iborra, who boasts of his Alicante origins, explains that his is a luminous show: “The original production is very sad, because it takes place in the post-world war period, but the children, in the war, do not stop playing. That's why my bet has been to make a more Mediterranean montage. At all times we have had absolute freedom to make the modifications we considered appropriate.”
For his part, Barratier, who attended the Barcelona premiere of The Chorus Boys, points out: “The show has been growing in recent years with each new production. In fact, if I do it again in Paris, I will incorporate some of the ideas I have seen here,” words that are celebrated by the Tivoli artistic team.
Another important change compared to the film has been the incorporation of students at the boarding school. “I already decided when I adapted it for the theater,” Barratier confesses. We needed girls who could sing, because at that age they have more powerful voices. They are not on screen in the film, but they are part of the choir. Here we incorporate them into the story, playing powerful characters, with a determined character, because they are not willing to let themselves be stepped on by the boys."
The children's cast is made up of 19 boys and girls of various ages, trained in Barcelona for the occasion. Cesc Buil and Nil Altimira are the youngest of the cast, in which they alternate in the role of Pepin. Buil declares that he has a great time playing his role: “I hadn't done theater before, and I would like to do more,” he says. And about his work, he summarizes: “He has difficult things, but not so many.”
Attention, spoiler: at the end of the performance, the boys' and girls' choir give a medley to the audience and, as a final surprise, in this Barcelona production, they perform El cant dels ocells.
