Children’s puppet opera “The Giant of Altzo” to be performed in Mexico

2017/08/16

Euskara. Kultura. Mundura.

The children´s puppet opera “El gigante de Altzo” (The Giant of Altzo) will run from August 19 to September 24 at Mexico’s Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Theater. The performance is part of the Impulso festival organized by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, created to encourage theatre arts among young people.

The children´s puppet opera “El gigante de Altzo” (The Giant of Altzo) will run from August 19 to September 24 at Mexico’s Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Theater. The performance is part of the Impulso festival organized by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, created to encourage theatre arts among young people.

The show is a production of Topic, Tolosa´s International Puppet Center, in collaboration with Donostia 2016 European Capital of Culture. It will be performed in its Spanish version for the Mexican audience. The director of Topic, Idoya Otegi, and the opera composer, David Azurza, will attend the premiere of the play with the support from the  Etxepare Basque Institute.

This children´s puppet opera, children´s choir, soloists and small ensemble of musicians is based on choral singing and the Basque oral narrative, with the addition of contemporary stage sets. The art of puppetry has historically combined well with music. The work takes the life of the legendary Gipuzkoan character Migel Joakin Eleizegi Arteaga (1818 - 1861) – known as the Giant of Altzo – as its starting point and narrative thread. The poetry and music featured in this play are inspired by feelings that permeated the life of this “different” man: loneliness, respect for the different, non-exploitation, a love of nature, innocence, nobility and kindness.

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