IMITACIÓ DEL FOC

This performance, which combines music, dance, and spoken word, is part of an homage to the figure of the Majorcan poet Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel, whose birth in 1913 has inspired this centennial celebration in 2013.  Imitació del foc represents the culmination of the author's poetic work, published posthumously.   Rosselló-Pòrcel (Palma, Majorca, Spain 1913 - El Brull, Osona, Spain 1938) turned out a highly interesting literary production, but his premature death- from tuberculosis- truncated a brilliant and promising career. While completing his studies in Barcelona and Madrid, he combined his work as a writer with the incorporation of Balearic authors into the overall trends reigning on the peninsula and wrote critical essays on important Castillian literary figures, such as Francisco de Quevedo and Jorge Guillén.  His work, though brief, had considerable influence on the young authors of the war generation, like Salvador Espriu and Josep Palau i Fabre.   Imitation of Fire [Imitació del foc] is a collection of poems in three parts, "Lit Fair" [Fira encesa], "Secret Rose" [Rosa secreta], and "Flaming Tree" [Arbre de flames].  The piece leads the viewer through the overflowing creativity of the Majorcan poet using the intimate tale of two characters who live together and create a dialogue using the language of dance and poetry.  This is a show in which Rosselló-Pòrcel's verses navigate over the music of Jaume Manresa (a philologist specializing in Rosselló-Pòrcel's work who is also Antònia Font's keyboardist).
The aim of the performance is to translate to contemporary stage language these images created by one of the great poets of the Catalan language of the 20th century.  They move from Symbolism to Naturalism and Poetic Surrealism, touching on Neo-popularism present in the Castillian Generation of '27, inspired by such diverse authors as Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Góngora and André Gide.

Bilingual material- in Catalan and Castillian Spanish- will be provided to better follow the performance.

Actors: Miquel Àngel Torrens, Aina Pascual Silva 
Dramaturgy: Josep R. Cerdà y Mar Pla
Direction: Josep R. Cerdà
Original Music: Jaume Manresa
Stage space: Assumpta Capellà 
Length: 35 min.    

This activity has been organized by the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics in a collaboration with Casa del Lector.