Summer Nights return to CaixaForum Madrid with Alberto San Juan, Christina Rosenvinge and Antonio Serrano
The "la Caixa" Foundation has presented the new programme for its consolidated Summer Nights at CaixaForum Madrid. From June 24 to July 30, the cultural centre will bring back its summer dates with music, poetry and cinema on Thursday and Friday nights with unique small and medium-sized shows.
Once again, Thursday nights will be dedicated to music and, as a novelty, to poetry. The cultural centre will be filled with performances of a diverse range of genres and styles such as jazz, gospel and classical music, and shows where the recited word takes centre stage with proposals ranging from popular prose to the more alternative scene.
As an aperitif to the concerts, the foyer of CaixaForum Madrid will host a new cycle of Microconcerts, with small-format musical proposals.
On Friday nights, a cycle of screenings will be programmed with films recently recognised by critics and the public, which will take viewers on a journey through different cultures without leaving the cinema.
Actor Alberto San Juan and Argentinean composer and guitarist Fernando Egozcue will open the poetry nights at the cultural centre on Thursday June 24th. On the stage of the auditorium they will present 'Te quiero, Benedetti' (I love you, Benedetti), a recital in tribute to the Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti, one of the most outstanding figures in Spanish-language literature belonging to the Generation of '45. The result is a journey through the voices of Latin American and Spanish literature such as Cernuda, Giaconda Belli, Galeano and Cortázar, among other authors, with whom we will embark on a journey that will recall the Republican exile in Spain in the 1930s, the political persecution of the Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s and the spoliation suffered in South America in the 1990s.
From Galicia, the actor and storyteller Quico Cadaval will bring his show 'Os inocentes' (The Innocents) to the CaixaForum Madrid auditorium on July 8. With a format that is very close to theatre, Cadaval recovers the tradition of oral storytelling in Galicia to set in a tavern story some anodyne characters who were also protagonists of the Civil War of 1936, but who are always forgotten in wars: the innocents.
The singer and composer Christina Rosenvinge will also take part in the Summer Nights programme on July 29th, which will be a very special occasion to get closer to the most unusual side of the artist from Madrid. On stage she will combine poetry, songs and spoken word, with some texts taken from her book 'Debut: notebooks and songs', full of her own literary, musical and artistic references and those of the authors who have most influenced her. The recital will feature lyrics and verses that review the more than 25 years of her artistic career along with a recreation of the intimacies and thoughts that have accompanied her at every moment.
Le Quintette is the group that will open the concerts on Thursday July 1st. This group, made up of a string quintet with guitars, violin and double bass, pays tribute to the legendary Quintette du Hot Club de France, the jazz manouche or gypsy jazz group that revolutionised dance floors in the 1930s. With a dynamic and spontaneous live performance, this group manages to convey the authentic spirit of jazz manouche to the audience, as well as offering a few surprises.
Five powerful female voices make up Black Pearls of Gospel, which can be seen in the auditorium of the cultural centre on Thursday July 15th. The five artists together represent the expression of a universal spirituality that resonates within each individual. The Black Pearls of Gospel are the perpetuation of the female gospel groups, who had to fight for their human and civil rights in a world dominated by patriarchy and men. With a barrage of sensitivity, energy and determination, they will recover the memory of great divas of the genre such as Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, Aretha Franklin, Angelic Gospel Singers, The Caravans, The Roberta Martins Singers and The Clark Sisters.
Another surprising proposal will be that of the harmonica player Antonio Serrano, who will present his proposal 'Clazzical' on July 22nd in the auditorium. His new project is based on the great melodies of classical music and the daring harmonies and syncopated rhythms of jazz. The motifs of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' intertwine to become a Boogaloo from the 60s, Schubert's famous 'Serenade' will transport us to the dreamlike world of Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto and Beethoven's universal 'Ode to Joy' will make us dance as if we were at the New Orleans carnival listening to Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. Thus, the most inspired composers of classical music parade in new proposals made to the measure of the best jazz. Borodin's 'The Dances of Prince Igor' will be interpreted with a lot of swing and the characteristic elegance of West Coast Jazz; the choruses of Verdi's 'Nabucco' fit perfectly into a Jazz Waltz, worthy of the most inspired Bill Evans and Ravel's 'Bolero'. Bach, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Khachaturian or Satie complete a repertoire that is still in the collective subconscious and is reborn in the hands of Antonio Serrano's quartet.
The musical offer for summer nights will be complemented with Microconcerts, the format that has been consolidated at CaixaForum Madrid in previous editions and which offers local musicians and groups the chance to give a small concert in the cultural centre itself. To this end, a professional jury has made a selection of musical proposals through the CaixaForum Call for musical performances. The result encompasses a wide range of musical genres, from electronic music to classical music and jazz, as well as singer-songwriters and world music.
With the Microconcerts, "la Caixa" Foundation reinforces its commitment to the local music scene by offering the opportunity to show the public new and stimulating proposals.
Fridays at the cultural centre will be devoted to cinema. A summer of film will show a selection of feature films for all audiences by prominent directors who have recently received critical acclaim and awards at international film festivals.
The cycle will open on June 25 with 'Sir' (India and France, 2018), the film by director Rohena Gera that explores the class divide in India through a relationship that breaks down the barriers of social conventions. On July 2, the film The Song of the Jungle (Brazil, 2018) will be shown, which portrays the story of young Ihjāc who, fleeing his duty as an adult, decides to flee his small indigenous village in northwest Brazil for the big city, where he will face the complications and problems of being an aborigine in today's Brazil.
The next screening will be on July 9 with 'La hija de un ladrón' (A Thief's Daughter) (Spain, 2019), the feature film by debutant Belén Funes that won the award for Best New Director at the Goya Awards. Director Lulu Wang's 'The Farewell' (USA, 2019) can be seen on July 16, a film that focuses on a young American daughter of Chinese immigrants and her journey to deal with family expectations and her roots. 'Woman at War' (Iceland, France, Ukraine, 2018) can be seen on July 23rd, a work that earned director Benedikt Erlingsson and actress Helldóra Geirharösdóttir recognition at the Valladolid and Seville Film Festivals. The cycle will close on July 30 with 'Capernaum' (2018, Lebanon), which portrays the unequal society of today's Lebanon.
This cycle of films will allow viewers to explore, wander and embark on new paths, discovering new people and cultures through the big screen.
With the aim of improving the visitor experience, CaixaForum Madrid recommends planning the visit in advance by booking or buying tickets on the website, where you can check ticket availability. This way, access to the centre's spaces, which currently have limited capacity in accordance with health and safety measures, can be guaranteed. Likewise, in all the shows, screenings and programmed activities, the hygiene, safety and seating capacity measures provided for in the official protocols will be applied.