On 6th October 1999, the Universitat de València opened the Centre Cultural La Nau after a comprehensive rehabilitation process of its historic base. For commemorating the 20th Anniversary, the Universitat has scheduled a show that will take place on Monday 4th November at Teatro Principal of València. In that show will perform the Orfeó Universitari of València and the groups Proletaris del Ritme, Luna de África and Tesa in a unique proposal that mix the classic music with African, jazz and rap music. The free invitations can be picked up one hour before the show in the ticket office of the theatre.
The performance, entitled African Passion by JS Bach, is a mix among Bach music, African rythms and the black music that the Orfeó presents with Jesús Salvador ‘Chapi’. The show, which links the choir singing with the reality that involves it, is inspired by the migratory crisis that killed almost 2.000 people in the Mediterranean last year.
This original idea directed by Jesús Salvador ‘Chapi’ and Francesc Valldecabres is a new and groundbreaking musical creation inspired in the life of Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), an Alsatian intellectual - doctor, theologian and organist who wrote one of the most interesting biographies about Johann Sebastian Bach - who travelled to Africa as missionary in 1911, whose pacific work gave him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. From this idea, which have different musical projects, African Passion by JS Bach works with Pasión según san Juan by the German compositor, mixing it with other realities and cultures. The text with the passion and pain in the background links with the current Mediterranean reality.
According to Valldecabres, this production belongs to a work line of the Orfeó that in the last years has dedicated the productions of the Serenates Festival to create programmes that makes think about social aspects. In that way, they have offered programmes as Dido and Aeneas, by Purcell, or Les Noces, by Stravinsky, about bullying and infantile arranged marriages.
African Passion by JS Bach is an own production where have been working the Orfeó Universitari of València, directed by Francesc Valldecabres and the participation of the soprano: Saray García and the bass: Antonio Sabuco; the Proletaris del Ritme formation, by the direction of Jesús Salvador ‘Chapi’, who also has done the arrangements; Dani Flors plays the guitar; Toni Belenguer plays trombone; Óscar Cuchillo, the double bass; Carles Salvador, drummer; Luna de África carries out the percussion, voices and dance, and the special collaboration of the rapper Tesa.
