2024-10-15 03:36:00
Giacinto Guerrero (1895-1951) and four of his works – ‘The Sevillian Guest’, ‘The Green Envelope’, ‘The Golden Orgy’ and ‘The Saffron Rose’ – constitute the axis around which the exhibition develops’ Theatrical artifices, the musical scene of the roaring twenties, which opens its doors today in ABC Museumwhere it will remain until March 8, 2025. “From the world of the magazine, colorful and bright, and from that of the zarzuela, more traditional, with scenography closer to the earth, we built the exhibition”, he says Alberto Gonzalez Lapuentemusic critic for ABC and curator of the exhibition together with Immaculate corkdirector of the ABC Museum. The connection between the scene of the late 1920s – and more specifically the scenography – and the artistic currents is the ‘leitmotif’ of the exhibition. Funding comes from both the Guerrero Foundation and the ABC Museum.
«We must not forget – continues González Lapuente – that although it was a purely popular theatre, and today we have a very vulgar image of the zarzuela in many respects, the best set designers and the best theater directors of the time They worked in these theaters. They were very cultured people, who knew the European theater perfectly and who imported into Spain what was done in Europe, even if under lesser conditions.
The director of the ABC Museum adds that “some set designers of the time were also illustrators: Peter Mairata, Emily Ferrer, Delhy Weaver…Both worlds coexisted. The avant-garde had not developed as in Europe, and on the other hand we were witnessing a revisionism of the most popular and traditional themes, to the point of making them a distinctive sign. There is a stylistic revision of these themes, a modernization in the way of seeing and representing them.
The exhibition, which seeks to recreate the atmosphere of a theatre, is presided over by seven theaters in which the set designer works Javier Chavarríain which he recreated seven series of the four works mentioned above. “The Green Envelope” and “The Golden Orgy” – “the great unknown and yet the great entertainment revue of the time, made at the Price with an absolutely brutal scenographic spectacle,” says González Lapuente – present the tinsel and the excess of the magazine, while austerity presides over the scenes of ‘The Saffron Rose’ and ‘The Guest of Seville’.
The sketch of the reconstruction of the scenography of ‘La rosa del azafán’, the model and the original photo – with Luisa Vela and Emilio Sagi Barba – incorporated into the theater
The recreation is based on photographs of the time. “Some were very detailed, but in others we only had a press document on a very bad document,” explains Chavarría, who adds that the first thing was to do research, understand very well how the scenario comb works, how to ” The numbers… They have a tapestry effect where everything happens vertically, not flat.”
The result is seven models that try to get closer to what the public saw of the time. «In the case of the magazine – explains González Lapuente – we tested different colors to see which ones worked best to obtain an absolutely unprecedented reconstruction. Is it real? No. But is it possible? Perhaps. But it’s definitely fun. More than an exhibition it is entertainment. «Illustration incorporated, in the twenties and thirties, impossible colours; Until then they had not been able to be applied due to the quality of the reproduction and because synthetic fabrics – plexiglass, nylon – which allowed new possibilities for scenography, had not appeared. The yellows, the blues – which would later lead to the Klein blue in the seventies -… In fact, it was the justification for Javier to do something crazy,” Inmaculada Corcho completes.
Sketch of the scenography of ‘The Golden Orgy’; caricature of Guerrero created by Cirio in 1929; and the work ‘La dama de la rosa’, by Alcázar, cover of Blanco y Negro of 13 August 1933
The exhibition allows you to learn about various curious aspects of the world of the scene of those years. «These works were highly appreciated – says González Lapuente – and had great prominence in the press. Each newspaper sent its photographer and there are many photographs of the scenes. At the Guerrero Foundation we keep around a thousand photographs of zarzuelas from magazines of the time; “We believed that many were repeating themselves, but we found that there are small differences depending on where the photographer was and what the shot was with his camera.” In those photographs, which could then be used for sheet music covers, for posters, for manual programs, for postcards with the lyrics of the songs on the back, for printing – sometimes retouched with white paint around the figures, to shape them -. «The illustrators also worked on all this material – says Inmaculada Corcho. And the sets were very painted; Ultimately, the illustrator had a natural place in the theater.
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