THE NIGHT OF SAN JUAN (Soirées de Barcelona)
Antonio Ruz Company

Antonio Ruz Company

Header photo: La Nuit, original curtain by Joan Junyer, 1939.

Price: €30 and €28

La noche de San Juan (Soirées de Barcelona), with music by Gerhard and choreography by Massine, was created in the 1930s for the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo company, with a script by Ventura Gassol and sets by Joan Junyer.

Antonio Ruz has revived the ballet based on the piano score, some of the sets, and other preserved materials. The ballet's plot is based on the script written by Ventura Gassol. The text begins with a four-line preface by the poet Joan Maragall on love, the main theme of the story. The action takes place during the eve, night, and morning of San Juan and is set in Isil, a small town in the Pyrenees.

Inspired by the mythical night of the festival of San Juan and the fire celebrations of the Catalan Pyrenees, Gerhard's music is full of references to popular songs that are still heard in rural areas of Catalonia.

The staging uses reproductions of the original sketches designed by Joan Junyer, inspired by the Pyrenean landscape and the festival that the creators experienced in the 1930s.

"My enthusiasm for accepting this invitation is fueled by several factors that I find very appealing: the fact that it is a project to recover a forgotten repertoire; the unfavorable historical circumstances that prevented its premiere from ever taking place; the constellation of great artists who composed it; and the context of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and the modernist dancer and choreographer Léonide Massine, who drew inspiration from popular rituals and dances, as in some of Stravinsky's ballets. Inspired by all this valuable historical material, my goal as director and choreographer is to offer a contemporary dance piece bathed in theatricality and dynamism and accompanied by effective, unpretentious staging. The seven performers will carry the narrative weight of the work with their bodies, supported by the live performance of Gerhard's revised score by pianist Miguel Baselga, projections with Junyer's original backdrops, lighting design by Olga García, and costumes by Rosa García Andujar. This is a new artistic challenge that our company is tackling with determination, respect, and great enthusiasm.

ANTONIO RUZ

Music Roberto Gerhard
Set design Joan Junyer
Story Ventura Gassol

ANTONIO RUZ COMPANY

Direction and choreography: Antonio Ruz
Dance and choreographic collaboration: Melania Olcina Elia López, Carmen Fumero, Begoña Quiñones, Pau Aran, Miguel Zomas, Julián Lazzaro.
Piano: Miguel Baselga

The music is performed in the composer's own piano version and the set reproduces the original Pirineu de nit curtain. Ballet 'La Nuit de la Saint Jean' by Joan Junyer.

ARTISTIC TEAM
Costume designer: Rosa García Andújar
Lighting design: Olga García (AAI)
Assistant director: Lucía Bernardo
Production (SPECTARE) Paola Villegas and Gabriel Blanco
Distribution (TINA AGENCY) Valeria Cosi

Research and documentation Mònica Tarré i Pedreira
Musical editing (unpublished) Juan de Udaeta
Editing review Miguel Baselga
Reproduction of the curtain Dolores Iglesias

A production by the Juan March Foundation and Gran Teatre del Liceu

The header image is by Dolores Iglesias, inspired by Junyer's original curtain, 1939:

RELATED ACTIVITIES:

Conference: The Night of San Juan. With Antonio Ruz and Miguel Balsega
10/15/21 - 7:30 p.m.