Mozart's Requiem and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater are two emblematic works in the repertoire of the Orfeó Català and the Cor de Noies. Within the framework of the Grec festival, both institutions have had the opportunity to experiment around these pieces, creating two stage concerts in which the members of the choirs move around the stage and sing in a more theatrical format.
The Orfeó Català will present, this Friday at the Palau de la Música (8 pm), the daring version of Mozart's Requiem accompanied by the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Halsey and stage direction by Pere Faura, in a co-production by Grec with the Palau. The piece will feature soprano Mireia Tarragó, mezzo-soprano Tànit Bono, tenor César Cortés and baritone Elías Arranz as soloists.
"The choreography is very exciting for the choir," Halsey agreed. "They have to sing from memory, look at the public, use the entire building...", she added, at the same time that she defined the piece as a "musical revelation". "It's a disconcerting concert and choreographed music," said Faura, who had to devise a choreography for 83 dancers. "One of the strategies to transform the Requiem into something scenic has been to pour myself into the text," she said.
For its part, the Choir of Girls of the Orfeó Català has reflected on motherhood from the Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. On Monday, July 18 (8 pm), they will perform this crucial work of sacred music together with the Vespres d’Arnadí Orchestra, in another co-production of the festival with the Palau. The concert is directed by Buia Reixach i Feixes, while Marc Rosich has taken over the stage direction. Soprano Ulrike Haller and mezzo-soprano Marta Infante will take part in the version, as well as dancers Davo Marín and Carme Milán, creators of the choreography.
For the staging, the piece has been "deconsecrated a little, turning it into the suffering felt by a mother who loses her child," according to Rosich. "We have played with the Cor de Noies, which has given itself to the maximum to imagine this little narrative with us," he assured. Along the same lines, Reixach valued the corporal, interpretative and memory work that the choir he directs is doing. "I think it's terribly necessary that on stage we can create a space for reflection," he said.
Cesc Casadesús, director of the Grec festival, described both proposals as “two European classics that fit in very well with the rest of the program, which is full of European culture”.
