El retablo de maese Pedro

Musical and scenic version of an episode of Don Quixote

Premio Nacional de Teatro para la infancia y la juventud 2014 Ξ Premio Prestigio Turístico Nacional

An opera by Manuel de Falla

Show premiered January 2009 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona.

Manuel de Falla would recount that when he was young, he would play by staging the adventures of Don Quixote for his younger sister. This was a beloved and familiar character for the child from Cadiz, before he became the celebrated Spanish composer. So in 1918, when the Princess de Polignac commissioned him to write a short piece for chamber orchestra, Falla proposed Chapter XXVI of the Second Part of the Cervantes novel as the plot for his opera, and further suggested staging it with puppets, for that chapter tells «the funny story of the puppeteer.»
The action takes place in a La Manchan inn where Maese Pedro (Master Peter) and his assistant, the young Trujamán, offer a puppet show for the guests. Among the spectators are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. The puppets represent «Melisendra’s stage of freedom,» a medieval romance which tells how Don Gayferos rescues his wife, Melisendra, imprisoned by the Moors in the city of Sansueña (present day Zaragoza). Don Quixote, observing the scene and wanting justice, hurls himself into the action, draws his sword as the lovers flee and are pursued by the Moors. But the gestures of the valiant knight only serve to destroy the puppet show stage and the puppets.

For the premiere of El retablo de maese Pedro in Paris in 1923, and then in Seville in 1925, Manuel de Falla had various partners, including his friend, Hermenegildo Lanz. This artist deeply loved and admired don Manuel, and jealously guarded everything about him. Thus, he preserved everything, from the musical score and letters with Falla’s tips, to the templates with which he crafted the figures, the sketches of the puppets’ mechanics, and the list of materials needed to build the stage and puppets. Enrique Lanz has always played with puppets, and grew up admiring the dolls, drawings, and sketches of his grandfather, Hermenegildo, among which were those that he did for El retablo de maese Pedro.

For Enrique Lanz the name of Manuel de Falla and the notes from his quixotic altar have always been cherished notions. Perhaps because of that association, so full of respect and gratitude, he decided to stage this play only in the maturity of his career. Today it is done with giant puppets, as a monument to Cervantes and Falla, two Spanish geniuses, universal, and eternal. From Cervantes, Lanz takes the concept of a play within a play: the interplay between levels of reality, confused universes. The author of Don Quixote created the character, Cide Hamete Benengeli, who, according to literary fiction, created much of the story of Alonso Quijano, the celebrated gentleman of La Mancha who — passionate about novels of chivalry — created Don Quixote, who in turn created the character of Dulcinea, the woman to whom he dedicates his honor. Fiction and reality in the work of Cervantes are constantly confused, distorted by the imagination of Don Quixote, and this idea is the mainstay of Enrique Lanz’s production. His staging weaves continuous layers of reality, visual surprises, of trompe-l’œil, and of improbable illusions.

Show features:

Music: Manuel de Falla
Stage direction, sets and puppets: Enrique Lanz
Musical direction: Josep Vicent
Lighting: Alberto Rodríguez
Assistant Director: Yanisbel Victoria Martínez
Puppets
Concept and supervision: Enrique Lanz
Modeling: Javier Castillo, Leonardo Gutiérrez
Shape: Enrique Lanz, Carlos Montes, Álvaro Ortega Beltrán
Molds, castings, and coatings: Javier Castillo, Umar Ciudad, Elena Díaz, Alicia Fernández, Ariel García, Cécile Lamouroux, Osmani Pérez, Elena Vicente, José Luis Villegas Padilla, Taller Espuig
Painting, construction of wardrobe elements and accessories: Carlos Montes, Álvaro Ortega Beltrán, Luis Rodríguez, Miguel Saura, Taller Espuig
Mechanisms: Gabriel Ferrigno, Enrique Lanz, Carlos Montes, Álvaro Ortega Beltrán, Luis Rodríguez
Models: Javier Castillo, Leonardo Gutiérrez, Enrique Lanz, Elisa Ramos, José Rodríguez
Digital staging: Javier Castillo, Enrique Lanz
3D Scanning: Latorre y Sanz Artesanos S.L.
Staging
Concept and supervision:
Enrique Lanz
Metal structures and stage machinery: José Luis Villegas Padilla, Óscar Ruiz
Backdrop painting: Carlos Montes
Digital backdrop printing: Jesús Carrasco S.L.
Puppeteer costumes: Raquel Vaquero
Projections
Concept and filming:
Enrique Lanz
Shadow theater construction: Éric Deniaud
Shadow theater puppeteering: Éric Deniaud, Yanisbel Victoria Martínez
Post-production: Dèunidó
Post-production: Merlí Borrell
Historical research: Abel González Melo, Enrique Lanz, Yanisbel Victoria Martínez
Regiduría y producción ejecutiva: Yanisbel Victoria Martínez

Show features:

Audience: All audiences from 8 years
Time: 45 minutos
Language: Spanish
Spaces: The show can be mounted in indoor and outdoor spaces.
Music: The orchestra will be made up of a minimum of 21 musicians and a director.