Ian Gibson Contratación

Ian Gibson - Lorca

HOW A POET SINGS

The Hispanist Ian Gibson introduces viewers to the figure of Lorca, his death, and anecdotes from his life in a beautiful recital alongside baritone Luis Santana. Alongside Gibson's explanations and accompanied by images projected during the show, Santana gives voice to the 16 popular songs collected and harmonized by García Lorca between the late 1920s and mid-1930s.

In this concert/lecture, three pieces that have never been heard before are performed for the first time. The compositions that the audience will be able to hear for the first time correspond to Mariana Pineda, a children's ring-around-a-rosy song harmonized by Federico in a very simple way; Canción de otoño en Castilla (Autumn Song in Castile), a sad work, with the melancholy of autumn, which he collected during his time in Burgos in 1934; and Duérmete niñito mío (Go to Sleep, My Little One), a very gypsy lullaby, a score provided by Ian Gibson himself, while the other two were found in the Federico García Lorca Foundation.

The thread running through the show is these songs, both the unpublished ones and those already performed by artists such as Teresa Berganza or Victoria de los Ángeles. Songs that Ian Gibson contextualizes in different periods of Lorca's life to provide a more intimate approach to the Granadian poet. A Federico who is fascinated by the figure of Mariana Pineda, whom he could see every day from his window in his youth. Parallel to his poetic, literary, and theatrical work, he begins his research into popular songs and ballads. Alongside Falla, he delves into flamenco, its music, and its lyrics, which allows him to discover his deepest poetic self, alongside the gypsy population that surrounded him in his hometown of Fuente Vaqueros.

How a Poet Sings is an approach by the three artists—Ian Gibson, Luis Santana, and José Manuel Cuenca—to disseminate this important contribution to our society based on the lesser-known Lorca in his role as a composer.

Ian Gibson was born in Dublin in 1937, but became a Spanish national in 1984. After teaching at universities in Belfast and London, in 1957 he made his first trip to Spain, to Madrid, knowing nothing about the dictatorship or who Franco was. And there he fell in love with Spanish culture and landscapes, with «an entire peninsula full of secrets and enigmas».

In 1960, Gibson earned a degree in Spanish and French Literature from Trinity College Dublin. In 1962, he began his university career as a contracted professor of Spanish at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland. To gather material for his doctoral thesis on García Lorca, he made his second trip to Granada in 1965, accompanied by his wife, before beginning work at the University of London in 1968. There he taught Hispanic literature and, from 1972, worked as a reader (the grade immediately below full professor) of Modern Spanish Literature. During his university life, he published two works: La represión nacionalista de Granada en 1936 y la muerte de Federico García Lorca (Paris, 1971) and The Death of Lorca (London, 1972), an expanded and corrected English version of the previous book.

In 1975 he settled in Spain, becoming one of the best-known Hispanists in the country. He earned a degree in Spanish and French Literature from Trinity College Dublin in 1960. After living for a few years in Madrid, he moved to El Valle (Granada), from where he returned to Madrid in 2004.

His best-known works are the biographical ones, focusing on the figures of the poets Federico García Lorca (he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1989 for La represión nacionalista de Granada en 1936 y la muerte de Federico García Lorca, which was strictly censored during the Francoist era) and Antonio Machado, although he has also dealt with other artistic figures such as Salvador Dalí, Camilo José Cela or Rubén Darío. In addition to his work as an essayist, he has also written a novel (Viento del Sur, 2001) and historical research essays (Paracuellos. Cómo fue, 2005). He has collaborated with various media outlets, such as El País and El Periódico de Cataluña, and has been director and presenter of several documentaries for the BBC.

This Zamorano baritone began his musical studies at the age of five, studying with some of the greatest masters such as Juana Peñalver, Consuelo Barrio, María Teresa Manzano, Miguel Zanetti, and currently with the eminent Spanish tenor Pedro Lavirgen and with Teresa Berganza. He has performed in the most important theaters and concert halls in our country: Gran Teatro del Liceo, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Fundación Juan March, Auditorio de Zaragoza, Maestranza de Sevilla, Principal de Alicante, Cervantes de Málaga, Miguel Delibes and Teatro Calderón de Valladolid, Romea de Murcia, Auditorio de León, Fundación Príncipe de Asturias, Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña, Gran Teatro de Córdoba, Gran Teatro de Huelva, Falla de Cádiz, Batel de Cartagena, Principal de Vitoria, Victoria Eugenia de San Sebastián, Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Mérida, Circo de Albacete, Auditorio de Cuenca, San Lorenzo del Escorial, Maestro Padilla de Almería, etc. Cities such as Rome, Paris, Milan, Naples, Budapest, Toulon, Bucharest, Donetsk, Iasi, Brașov, Lviv, Rousse, Riga, Porto, Lisbon, Vienna, Eisenach... He has been conducted by batons of the stature of García, Roa, Frizzi, Osa, Wilson, Alapont, Lencko, Vasilenko, Diadura, Monsalve, Abelló, Sainz Alfaro, Ortega, Popa, Mesa, Todorov, and many others. Memorable concerts at the Basilica of Pilar in Zaragoza in the presence of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Auditorio Nacional de Música alongside the legendary Orfeón Donostiarra with the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, Mozart's Requiem at the Cathedral of Seville, Brahms' Requiem at the Old Cathedral of Salamanca, Tribute to Victoria de los Ángeles at the church where she was baptized, Tribute to Teresa Berganza and Antón García Abril. Tribute at the Auditorio de Lleida to Ainhoa Arteta. Concert tour with the great Nati Mistral and the late Paco Valladares on Spanish poetry. Inauguration of the Soriano Musical Autumn festival under the baton of Odón Alonso. Robles de Laciana Festival alongside Rosa Torres-Pardo, International Festival of Úbeda, Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, etc. Specialist in Rossinian repertoire and Spanish chamber music. One of his latest concerts took place in Valdediós for the premiere of Asturian songs for baritone and piano by Antón García Abril, with the composer in attendance.

PROGRAM

• MARIANA PINEDA • SONG OF AUTUMN IN CASTILLE • GO TO SLEEP, MY LITTLE ONE • ANDA JALEO • THE FOUR MULE DRIVERS • THE THREE LEAVES • THE YOUNG MEN OF MONLEÓN • THE MOORS OF JAÉN • SEVILLE FOLK SONGS OF THE 18TH CENTURY • THE CAFÉ OF CHINITAS • LULLABY FROM SEVILLE • ZORONGO • BALLAD OF DON BOYSO • THE LITTLE PILGRIMS • THE KINGS OF THE DECK • LA TARARA

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