We have been entrusting ourselves to the GPS for just over an hour when we arrive at the Torres de Fals, wondering if it was a good idea to go there to see some 18th century Portuguese puppets telling the story of the Creation of the World. We haven’t even walked twenty meters when we are assaulted by some members of the organization of the Espurnes Barroques festival, which brings baroque music to baroque churches in Central Catalonia, while also organizing tastings of local or not-so-local products: “Try this cheese and this wine from the Alentejo, brought by the puppet company». The thing begins to amend, and more when we discover the rich heritage that hides that corner.
It is not a question of explaining it here, but take hold of san Google and you will understand me.
The ‘Bonecos de Santo Aleixo’ are tiny puppets with which biblical stories were narrated. They are worth seeing. On the one hand, to listen to that music transmitted orally from generation to generation in which the popular and the sacred are confused. On the other, to capture that freshness of the time, in which they did not hesitate to tell the story of Adam and Eve with enviable humor, combining the biblical story with spicy, sarcastic comments and winks at the public. With the distance and authority of three centuries, they remind us that sometimes we take things too seriously. To finish insisting on the matter, at the exit a tasting of typical pork with clams awaits us, again, from the Alentejo.
It’s already funny that they remind us that sometimes we get too transcendental when the next appointment is in another lost church, twenty minutes away, to listen to the Office of Darkness by Tomás Luís de Victoria. In Castelltallat they welcome us with lavender cookies and a rosemary infusion. And with the members of Cantoría, ready to sing a selection of the mythical Office by candlelight, alternated with songs from the Gregorian liturgy. A marvelous program, full of watermarks and polyphony of the highest level, excellently interpreted with less and less light: until only one candle remains lit. We leave with the feeling of having experienced something unique and that can only happen in a festival set up with as much imagination and love as this Espurnes Barroques.
The next day, a morning appointment in the least baroque place imaginable. The industrial warehouse of Cafés Gener, in a Cardona industrial estate. They greet us with the most powerful coffee we have ever tasted, to give way to the interpretation of two secular cantatas by Bach, accompanied by explanations by the poet Miquel Desclot, transmuted into Picander, the author of the texts of these particular works. They are numbers 205 and 211, the latter known as ‘La cantata del café’.
The performers are soloists linked to the Bachcelona festival (we’ll talk about them another day, which is also worthwhile). Young voices that need to step on boards but are already promising. Stay with the names of the soprano Rita Morais, the violinist Cristina Altemir and the bass Ramiro Maturana. With the direction of Daniel Tarrida and a few more coffees between chest and back, the profane Bach insists on the polygon: do not take Tomás Luís so seriously, that he too should have lived life, even if it was in his mystical way. The Espurnes Barroques Festival lasts until June 12 and is an excellent opportunity to (re)encounter music, heritage and gastronomy that we have too often forgotten. And enjoy life, of course.
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