The following is our monthly summary about our Cayambis composers and artists and their recent activities.
Marcelo Beltrán’s opera, Cantuña, o de cómo el diablo fue burlado, was premiered on June 7, in Quito, Ecuador. The work is based on the legend of Cantuña, who was an indigenous master builder who made a deal with the devil in order to finish the atrium and plaza in front of Quito’s San Francisco Cathedral. Part of an anticipated tetralogy of similarly themed short operas, the work is particularly noteworthy for having been performed almost exclusively by students of Ecuador’s National Conservatory and National Dance Institute.
Pictured below, the devil and Cantuña (who nearly lost his soul).
And composer Marcelo Beltrán (center) receiving the tumultuous applause of the audience.
This Saturday, Caracas’ El Buscón Bookstore is offering an experimental conference on the relationship between words and music. Entitled, “A Decapitated Orpheus sings a Dithyramb,” Andrés Levell will be speaking about his book, Notes about the Decapitation, which will be accompanied by a group of singers and instrumentalists that will also include Andrés on the Dithyrambic Lyres, which were recently constructed by the Venezuelan sculptor, Javier Level.
Also on Saturday, the Children’s Orchestra of the Municipal Music School of São Paulo will be performing Alexandre Travassos’s work, Salmodia, under the direction of Daniel Cornejo. And the next day, Alexandre will be performing his Concertino for clarinet and orchestra with the Youth Municipal Orchestra of São Paulo, under the direction of Erica Hindikson.
Finally, please enjoy this video of René Amengual’s Preludio Sinfónico (1939). By special arrangement with the National Library of Chile, we are pleased to edit this work (expected to be ready by the fall) as well as many of his other works, which in nearly every case means creating the very first published editions from his catalog.
