El gran Burlador - Música para el mito de Don Juan

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The CD "Airs of Seduction. Music for the Don Juan Legend" was commissioned by the Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales (State society for cultural commemorations) to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), celebrated in 2006. At the same time, it was conceived as a tribute to Tirso de Molina, whose masterpiece, El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, gave the world one of the universal legends of the history of literature -the legend of Don Juan- that has aroused much interest among dramatists and artists, and inspired Lorenzo Da Ponte and Mozart for their famous opera Don Giovanni.

This work re-creates, in a new way and as never before, one of the most important works of Spanish classical theatre. The course of the dramatic action of Don Juan is conveyed by means of a musical tour. The research team of Música Poética, composed of Lola Josa, philologer at the Universidad de Barcelona and an expert on the literature of Spain's Golden Age, Mariano Lambea, musicologist at CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), joined by Ángel Recasens, musical conductor, and Albert Recasens, musicologist and producer, by using a scientific, interdisciplinary method that had already been successfully applied in other projects (Don Quixote and The Flight of Icarus, both in Lauda), has poetically and musically illustrated the most relevant passages of Tirso's universal drama. In some cases, verses from the drama itself were selected and set to music from that period, by means of the contrafactum technique -of which Lambea is an expert- that was commonly used during the Golden Age. At other times, Lola Josa has chosen poems by other writers who also extol the virtues of some of the pillars supporting the legend. Finally, Ángel Recasens has selected other pieces from among the magnificent poetic-musical corpus of tonos humanos (secular songs), romances with or without refrains, villancicos and pieces of diverse styles.

Don Juan is portrayed in relation to the cardinal points of his dramatic action: his four conquests -the noblewomen Isabela and dona Ana, and the commoners Tisbea and Aminta-, love's meaning -for him and for them-, his arrogance as a playboy, his birth as a new Aeneas... All this, with the aim of being able to follow the course of the legend, giving a voice and music to each protagonist.
Tirso's verses have been illustrated by turning to the music of the most inspired composers of Spain's Baroque period, such as Cristóbal Galán, Juan Hidalgo, Bernardo Murillo, Manuel Correa, Manuel de Egüés, and the inevitable anonymous composers. In many instances the majority of the compositions, in addition to being unpublished, are worldwide premiere recordings.

The use of a variety of registers from the 17thcentury Spanish repertory is prominent: from pieces of extraordinary and penetrating lyricism, masterfully executed by the sopranos Gerstenhaber and Martins, to tonos humanos (secular songs), instrumental interludes by Trabaci and Macque, chapel masters from Naples -where the action begins-, folk rhythms and dances, and the magnificent 12-voice Dies irae sequence by Galán that concludes the register. Recasens gives us some emotive and elegant performances that aim for dramatic purpose and proportionality, converting a practically unknown repertory into works destined to endure.

By means of a luxurious sound recording under the direction of Günter Appenheimer, and a painstaking formal presentation, the catalogue of Spanish recordings is clearly enriched. Furthermore, the musical literature of the Golden Age has gained a new ambassador, thanks to which, for the first time, one can listen to sung verses of El burlador de Sevilla, the text that gave birth to the eternal legend of Don Juan, that has transcended borders, cultures, generations and eras.