Today, Sunday the 29th of January, Palma’s Teatre Principal will host the show El tocadiscos de Joan Fuster, a musical written by Valencian singer-songwriter Pau Alabajos based on a selection of texts by the Valencian writer about the Nova Cançó cultural movement. This show closes the events dedicated to the Any Fuster, which during 2022 have been held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the poet and essayist born in Sueca. At the same time, it will open the performances of the Barnasants Festival, which this year comes to Mallorca for its fifth edition.
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El tocadiscos de Joan Fuster
The First Vice-President and Councillor for Culture, Heritage and Linguistic Policy, Bel Busquets, has referred to it in these terms, stating that “this show is a beginning, but also an end. It is the beginning of the Barnasants festival in Mallorca. But it is also the end of the events of the Joan Fuster year that we have celebrated this year. From the Consell de Mallorca, we have participated by organising activities from the network of libraries, from the Fundació Mallorca Literària and also by hosting the Semana del Llibre en català (Book Week in Catalan), which dedicated this last edition to Fuster. Now, however, we wanted to have a show at Palma’s Teatro Principal focusing on the Valencian writer, who always had the Països Catalans in his thoughts”.
El tocadiscos de Joan Fuster, produced and premiered at Barnasants 2022, is a theatrical show filled with live music. Based on a selection of Fusterian texts that reflect on the cultural movement of the Nova Cançó, a puzzle of thoughts, aphorisms and dissertations is constructed on stage, which serves as the basis for a fictitious interview – a dramatised discussion – starring the essayist from Sueca and a young journalist with whom he talks about the role played by the Setze jutges in the anti-Franco struggle. As well as on the importance of the Nova Cançó during the transition to democracy and on other social, political and cultural issues that affect our recent history.
Songs by Raimon, Lluís Llach, Maria de Mar Bonet, Ovidi Montllor and Al tall, alluded to during the interview, make up the soundtrack of the show. The singer-songwriter Pau Alabajos performs live some of the most symbolic hymns of the sixties and seventies and pays tribute to Joan Fuster on the centenary of his birth.
This show has the particularity that it features local artists in each territory where it is performed. In the case of Palma’s Teatre Principal, Marcel Pich and Clara Fiol will add a Mallorcan touch by covering some of the songs performed during the show.
In addition to Joan Fuster’s turntable, Barnasants will feature up to 10 other artists who will present new albums or shows in the Balearic Islands. Among them, is the legendary Valencian singer-songwriter Paco Ibáñez, who will perform on 4 February in Formentera. You can also hear Mallorcans Tomeu Penya (5th February, Auditori de Porreres) and Joana Gomila (19th March, Teatre de Manacor); and Catalans Cesk Freixas (17th March, Casa des Poble, Esporles) and Xavi Vidal (25th March, Sa Congregació de sa Pobla); and Alguer’s Davide Casu (15th April, Esporles); Formentera’s Mireia (11th March, Sa Pobla) and Paz Aguado (18th March, Sa Congregació de sa Pobla); Menorca’s Guiem Soldevila (28th April, Sa Congregació de sa Pobla); and the Mallorcan and Formentera trio Imaràntia (16th April, Bunyola), who will present new works in this fifth edition.