El paradís de les muntanyes

From 1980 onwards, I started to look for texts that could be used for the composition of a chamber opera. The first one was a story by Joseph Conrad; later on, I thought that an imagined text as its basic element would be more convenient. Alfred Jarry was the author that I started to read with the aim of extracting a libretto; he provided me with what I was looking for. After putting aside this project for some time, the first task was to compose in 1993 Dos fragments d’òpera-guinyol. The text was adapted and translated by Miquel Desclot, and was based on the work by Jarry, Au paradis ou le vieux de la montagne.
After the debut I thought that these two fragments should be completed with the other parts of the text by Jarry in order to compose a chamber opera. The imagined text places some archetypical characters (a princess, two heroes, a wizard, etc.) in some dramatic situations far from what is “reasonable”. In this way, it makes a musical treatment that is varied and contrasted easier, which may highlight the poetic, grotesque and dramatic elements of the text. This first chamber opera was concluded in February 1994 and performed for the first time at the Teatre Lliure of Barcelona in November 1998, in a co-production of the “Festival de Músiques Contemporànies” (Festival of Contemporary Musics) in Barcelona and the “Festival Internacional de Teatre Visual i de Titelles” (International Festival of Visual and Puppet Theatre).

Jesús Rodríguez Picó