Diàlegs de tirant e Carmesina

The ancient books of chivalry – abridged and updated in Orlando Furioso by Ariosto or Jerusalén liberada by Tasso -  were a fundamental source of dramatic material during the period of Baroque opera. The ingenious staged madrigal, Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Monteverdi, based on Tasso, is at the same time, the starting point for Diàlegs de Tirant i Carmesina, a chamber opera by Joan Magrané and dramaturgist Marc Rosich  that is woven around Tirant lo Blanc, a masterpiece in Valencian literature.

Framed as a battle of love, and death, inspired by Joanot Martorell’s timeless chivalric novel, these dialogues are a continuous, amorous, and romantic coming and going between Carmensina and Tirant, a game of variations on themes of love and heartbreak, between desire and convention, taken from an ironic perspective. As a counterpoint, there are two antagonistic feminine characters: on the positive side, the mediation of Plaerdemavida;  and on the negative, the scheming betrayals of the Viuda Reposada. At the same time, artist Jaume Plensa transforms the space into a luminous installation of neon, which, like a metronome, beats the inexorable passing of time exemplified by romantic zeal.

Chamber Opera

Music by Joan Magrané (1988)

Libretto by Marc Rosich, based on Tirant Lo Blanc (1490) by Joanot Martorell

Coproduction of Òpera de Butxaca i Nove Creació, Gran Teatro del Liceu de Barcelona and the Castell de Peralada Festival

Premiere at the Castell de Peralada Festival, 18 July 2019

Season premiere at the Teatro Real

Artistic team

Musical Conductor | Francesc Prat

Stage Director | Marc Rosich

Stage Designer | Jaume Plensa 

Costume Designer | Joana Martí 

Lighting Designer | Sylvia Kuchinow

Choreographer | Roberto G. Alonso

Cast 

Tirant | Josep-Ramon Olivé

Carmesina | Isabella Gaudí

Resting widow / Plaerdemavida | Ana Brull 

Soloists of the Principal Orchestra of the Teatro Real