ALAS

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Music: Pedro Alcalde / Sergio Caballero
Additional Music: Pärt, Massenet, Szymanski, Fuckhead
Choreographer: Nacho Duato

Stage director: Tomaz Pandur
Set: Tomaz Pandur and Nacho Duato
Costumes: Angelina Atlagic

Lighting: Brad Fields
Projections: Zeljko Serdarevic and Dragan Mileusnic
Voice: Ana Wagener

Premiered by the Compañía Nacional de Danza (CND)
Venue: Palacio de Festivales Santander
Date: 28th April 2006

BACKGROUND
The initial inspiration for Alas came from Wim Wender’s film Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin, 1987), starring an angel who decides to give up her immortality to live among men. Although the ballet includes texts taken from the script by Peter Handke, the choreography does not offer an explicit parallelism with the film.

TITLE
“Wings” (“Alas”) are, in our culture, the traditional expression of the angel. This image epitomizes the conflicting element of the piece.

MUSIC
The musical composition was carried out apart from pre-established theological content: no choirs of angels, or “numerus sonorus” of the universe. We were, however, interested in the concept of the angel as guardian of the threshold between human and divine. The use of multiple and mixed voices, likened to listening in on the “sound of the world,” attempts to reflect this place. The final part, which surrounds the scene as it is filled with water, is the axis from which all other music parts were constructed.

SOUND PALETTE
1- Voice: individual and multiple
2- Piano: prepared and normal
3- Strings
4- Euphonium: multiphonics
5- Percussion: bass drum, tam-tam, drum kit
6- Chorus: as pedal
7- Frequency: 100 Hz
8- Environmental sounds, noises with acoustic instruments (piano and violin), ice, books, newspapers, and clothes

MEDIUM
Audio-CD

DURATION
1h, 04’

PERFORMANCES
28-04-2006 Palacio Festivales Santander Spain 2
04-05-2006 Autostadt Wolfsburg Germany 4
14-06-2006 Kursaal San Sebastian Spain 2
28-02-2007 Teatro Real Madrid Spain 6
06-06-2007 LG Arts Center Seoul South Korea 3
19-07-2007 La Nau Sagunto Spain 3
30-10-2007 Lucent Danstheater The Hague Holland 2
11-01-2008 Lyric Theatre Sidney Australia 4
07-02-2008 Mercat de les Flors Barcelona Spain 4
06-03-2009 National Concert Hall Taipei Taiwan 3
12-05-2008 Théâtre du Châtelet Paris France 5
17-03-2010 Opéra de Rouen Rouen France 2
25-03-2010 Bonlieu Scène Nationale Annecy France 2
30-03-2010 L´Espace Malraux Chambéry France 2
Total performances 44