Interview
Jorge Pinto
September
2021
Fri
24
Performer of A História do Soldado de Stravinsky/Ramuz, by Ensemble - Sociedade de Actores with Né Barros, to be presented between October 6 and 9 at Teatro Campo Alegre, and on October 10 under TMP Online.
With this version of The Soldier’s Tale you return to a text you’ve performed in the past. How has it been to revisit this piece?
For those who have already worked in this performance, as the maestro and I have, the big issue is: “How am I? What have I learned in the meantime?” I started doing this over 40 years ago, and I remember, watching it once again now, a couple of things I learned over the years. They just came to mind: “at the time, I learned this and that tool…” And now I want to know how I am and how I’m going to answer these very same questions.
But that is a rather personal curiosity; that’s not something the audience will come across. The audience will watch a present-day performance. As we move forward in the process, we gradually figure out (or not) where it becomes present-day.
There is no archaeology when it comes to the experiences I had as an actor, for instance. The text, the way of phrasing has a time, has decades on top of it. The communication with the audience, be it expert or not, has decades on top of it. That is to say, the relation between the audience and the stage never ceased. It is very easy for us to know when something is out of date, even as far as the relation with the audience goes.
Why this piece? What do this choice and this adaptation mean to Ensemble?
When I started buying records by The Beatles as a teenager, my father introduced me to several classical composers. I was used to classical music that was easy to digest and all of a sudden I listen to Stravinsky. I went completely nuts.
At the time, I didn’t have that much theatre in me. But I already had enough to know that was dramatic enough to listen to and to perform as many times as necessary. Not as recognition, but rather as a disturbing unit at any given time. Every time we listen to it, the music upsets us once again. So, I went after the soldier. Meanwhile, I had the chance to watch other dance pieces based on Stravinsky’s music. Olga Roriz did The Rite of Spring, which was extraordinary… Again, a provocative music.
I kept all of that. In the 1980s, I realised how theatre blends with Stravinsky’s music, particularly in The Soldier’s Tale. And the manifold possibilities to have the acting and the music interact.
Later, when we started doing cross-disciplinary performances, we were in 2018 and we did Quartet for the End of Time, by Olivier Messiaen. When I was in the middle of it—I was the one directing—I started feeling that Stravinsky was very present. Then I thought I could make an old dream come true: to do The Soldier’s Tale with seven musicians. At the time, it was prohibitive, but now there’s that chance: we can hire an ensemble. Similarly, we thought we could also take a very big leap as far as dance is concerned in case Né accepted to take part in the project. That is how this performance came to be. It is a process; an enrichment of our musical and theatrical passions. Né accepted our challenge and here we are.
Can you tell us a little about your character?
We wanted this version to be mostly made up of an image of bodies, an image more associated with contemporary dance. Mine is the narrator, which then unfolds and plays the characters he himself narrates.
The Soldier’s Tale is an iconic piece in several artistic fields. In what way did each of those disciplines influence the performance you’re putting on?
It is inevitable that this performance be dominated by music. We’ll play it all as it is written. But we intend this version to also be dominated by contemporary dance, by Né Barros’ vision. We want that to be the common denominator. Whether the musicians, the ensemble, will have a greater dynamic, I do not know… There’s no piano—because even a piano could wander around the stage– but that’s something on which we’re still working.
I’m certain that the spectator—more of a music lover, more of a dance lover or more of a theatre lover—will feel the performance in a different way.
With this version of The Soldier’s Tale you return to a text you’ve performed in the past. How has it been to revisit this piece?
For those who have already worked in this performance, as the maestro and I have, the big issue is: “How am I? What have I learned in the meantime?” I started doing this over 40 years ago, and I remember, watching it once again now, a couple of things I learned over the years. They just came to mind: “at the time, I learned this and that tool…” And now I want to know how I am and how I’m going to answer these very same questions.
But that is a rather personal curiosity; that’s not something the audience will come across. The audience will watch a present-day performance. As we move forward in the process, we gradually figure out (or not) where it becomes present-day.
There is no archaeology when it comes to the experiences I had as an actor, for instance. The text, the way of phrasing has a time, has decades on top of it. The communication with the audience, be it expert or not, has decades on top of it. That is to say, the relation between the audience and the stage never ceased. It is very easy for us to know when something is out of date, even as far as the relation with the audience goes.
Why this piece? What do this choice and this adaptation mean to Ensemble?
When I started buying records by The Beatles as a teenager, my father introduced me to several classical composers. I was used to classical music that was easy to digest and all of a sudden I listen to Stravinsky. I went completely nuts.
At the time, I didn’t have that much theatre in me. But I already had enough to know that was dramatic enough to listen to and to perform as many times as necessary. Not as recognition, but rather as a disturbing unit at any given time. Every time we listen to it, the music upsets us once again. So, I went after the soldier. Meanwhile, I had the chance to watch other dance pieces based on Stravinsky’s music. Olga Roriz did The Rite of Spring, which was extraordinary… Again, a provocative music.
I kept all of that. In the 1980s, I realised how theatre blends with Stravinsky’s music, particularly in The Soldier’s Tale. And the manifold possibilities to have the acting and the music interact.
Later, when we started doing cross-disciplinary performances, we were in 2018 and we did Quartet for the End of Time, by Olivier Messiaen. When I was in the middle of it—I was the one directing—I started feeling that Stravinsky was very present. Then I thought I could make an old dream come true: to do The Soldier’s Tale with seven musicians. At the time, it was prohibitive, but now there’s that chance: we can hire an ensemble. Similarly, we thought we could also take a very big leap as far as dance is concerned in case Né accepted to take part in the project. That is how this performance came to be. It is a process; an enrichment of our musical and theatrical passions. Né accepted our challenge and here we are.
Can you tell us a little about your character?
We wanted this version to be mostly made up of an image of bodies, an image more associated with contemporary dance. Mine is the narrator, which then unfolds and plays the characters he himself narrates.
The Soldier’s Tale is an iconic piece in several artistic fields. In what way did each of those disciplines influence the performance you’re putting on?
It is inevitable that this performance be dominated by music. We’ll play it all as it is written. But we intend this version to also be dominated by contemporary dance, by Né Barros’ vision. We want that to be the common denominator. Whether the musicians, the ensemble, will have a greater dynamic, I do not know… There’s no piano—because even a piano could wander around the stage– but that’s something on which we’re still working.
I’m certain that the spectator—more of a music lover, more of a dance lover or more of a theatre lover—will feel the performance in a different way.
