Songs & Poems by Federico García Lorca

In 2020, they premiered the SONGS AND POEMS BY FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA, a new show that brings together, in an exciting balance, a sung voice and a voice narrated under the guiding thread of the Spanish guitar, showing the universal poet through a selection of his most popular popular songs along with half a dozen carefully selected deep and vibrant poems.

The popular songs that LORCA collected and harmonised for piano were recorded on five gramophone records in 1931, in the voice of Encarnación López, La Argentinita, and with Lorca himself on piano. On this occasion, Toni Cotolí has made the arrangements for guitar songs that this show includes, stories such as Anda Jaleo, El café de Chinitas, Nana de Sevilla or the very famous La Tarara, and they are performed by the voice of Susana Montaña, achieving the union of depth and joy that this instrument gives them together with the powerful and warm updated and contemporary vocal register of the singer

A selection of six poems recited by the narrator and rapper Gloria Sevilla is interspersed, combining some well-known ones such as La Guitarra contained in the book Poema del Cante Jondo (1931), or Romance de la pena negra from the poetry book Romancero gitano (1928) together with others less widespread, perhaps by posthumous publications, but of profound beauty, such as Gacela de la huida, from the Divan of Tamarit (1940) or El poeta dice la verdad from Sonnets of Dark Love (1984). Toni Cotolí accompanies each of the poems with the interpretation of guitar themes by great contemporary composers, such as Roland Dyens, Oscar Herrero or Leo Brouwer and forming an exciting pairing between music and poetry.

This dialogue between the magic of the guitar and the depth of the voices achieves a novel combination and a vibrant artistic tone.