the tenor Pablo Garcia-Lopez will be Cegéste in Orpheus from Philip Glass, the new title of the season 22/23 of the Teatro Real whose premiere will take place on Wednesday 21 of September in the Theaters Canal. A poet longing for immortality and a mysterious princess capable of traveling to the world of the dead through mirrors are the protagonists of this review of the myth of Orpheus written by Jean Cocteau in 1927, later made into a film by himself in 1950 and adapted as an opera by Philip Glass in 1991, being premiered two years later at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Pablo Garcia-Lopez plays the young poet Cégeste, point of departure and return of a particular descent into hell.
The Cordovan singer will share the stage with Edward Nelson, Maria Rey-Joly, Sylvia Schwartz and Mikeldi Atxalandabaso, among others. Jordi Francés conducts the Teatro Real's Titular Orchestra and stage direction is provided by Rafael R.. Villalobos.
about his role in Orpheus, Pablo García-López explains: "Cégeste is a young poet of success and general recognition and possibly ephemeral - everything is fashion- within the artistic environment. This success and the way you carry it creates a relationship of dramatic tension of attraction, jealousy, rivalry, and buried resentment between him and Orpheus. In turn, the character acts as a link between the world of the dead and that of the living through the recitative that has Orpheus subjugated and that also serves as inspiration ".
According to the website of the Teatro Real, "The myth of Orpheus is, first of all, the translation into symbolic language of mourning after the death of a loved one: the negation, negotiation and acceptance find their way of expression through the protagonist's futile claim to rescue Eurydice from the kingdom of Hades and her failed pact with the divinities of the underworld". Jean Cocteau, author of the film script that serves as inspiration for this opera, directed his film Orpheus (1950) after losing her lover, Raymond Radiguet, with only 20 years. His exploration of myth is articulated as "the successive deaths that a poet must go through before becoming himself".
The death of Philip Glass's partner – designer and multimedia artist Candy Jernigan – also prompted the American musician to undertake this double homage with what would become the first title in a trilogy of chamber operas based on Cocteau – the others are The beauty and the Beast Y The Terrible Children–, totally independent of each other.
After passing through the Teatros del Canal, Pablo Garcia-Lopez will continue his artistic agenda with Il Tabarro by Puccini at the Teatro del Liceu, The Tarara/123, recital with Rosa Torres-Pardo at the Villamarta Theater in Jerez and The Turk In Italy by Rossini at the Teatro Real in Madrid.