Cristina Higueras and Fiorella Faltoyano declared themselves to be admirers of the “amazing language” of Pérez Galdós
The director of ‘Galdosiana’, Fernando Méndez-Leite, states that he has conceived a light humorous performance which encourages you to read the works of the Gran Canarian writer again
Cristina Higueras and Fiorella Faltoyano, the leading actresses of Galdosiana, a theatral performance conceived by Fernando Méndez-Leite, both declared themselves to be admirers of the “amazing language” of the renowned Benito Pérez Galdós. The two actresses and the stage director were all in praise of the Gran Canarian writer in the presentation of Galdosiana which took place this Thursday, 10th December in the Teatro Pérez Galdós. The performances of this premiere are to be performed on 11th and 12th December at 20:30 hours.
With this premiere, Fiorella Faltoyano is performing for the first time in the Canary Islands. “A sin to be redeemed”, stated the managing director of the Teatro Pérez Galdós Canary Islands’ Foundation, Juan Cambreleng, to whom Faltoyano dedicated some words of recognition. “Juan Cambreleng speculated on this project from the onset”, he said. Cambreleng, on his behalf, explained that he is only honouring “a commitment” he took on when becoming managing director of the Teatro, and the only thing he did was to reintroduce prose to the programming of the Teatro”.
Fiorella Faltoyano, in spite of her profound knowledge of the stage, is of the opinion that with Galdosiana she takes on “a challenge, an exclusive and unique emotion and responsibility”. According to her, neither she nor her fellow actors will contribute any new aspects; however they will give their opinion regarding the already known facts of Galdós. In any case, their main challenge is based on the “difficult task of interpreting various stage characters and having to change into them in record time”.
Both Fiorella and Cristina play the role of three different personalities. Cristina feels most satisfaction from her role of Augusta, from Realidad. “This is my favourite character as she is extremely modern, very advanced for her time”.
It is not the first time that Cristina Higueras performs in the Pérez Galdós. As she remembered, at the age of nineteen, she performed on stage here as member of the Nuria Espert company in the cast of Doña Rosita la soltera. “It is extremely emotional to return here and perform this play about Galdós”, she stated.
Re-reading of Galdós
Fernando Méndez-Leite, stage director of Galdosiana, and the one who conceived the original idea, explained the genesis of the performance. He related, “The whole idea arose one year ago, at the end of the tour of the previous staging of the New Comedy, Agnes de Dios”. When we were contemplating what could be our next project after finishing this tour, I had the idea of exploring the world of the women of Galdós and this idea appealed to my impresarios, Fiorella and Cristina”.
Thus a process of re-reading the novels of the Gran Canarian writer took place until the theatral material to be portrayed on stage was found. In this way the performance is limited to three works: Realidad, Doña Perfecta and Tormento, always putting into practice the particular point of view “from the admiration and utmost respect towards Galdós”.
Méndez-Leite status that his aim is to attempt to offer “a Light and humorous performance maintaining at all times Galdós’ traits; his phrases, his creative Spanish language which makes it a real pleasure to read and his sense of humour, irony and the criticism which on occasions was known to be harsh”. In order to achieve all this, not only does Méndez-Leite count on Cristina and Fiorella, but also with the involvement of David Sentinella and Amparo Alcoba as stage in the cast, and Javier Artiñano at the helm of stage and wardrobe design.
The performance lasts ninety minutes without an interval. After the premiere in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Galdosiana will begin a tour in mainland Spain and it is foreseen to be performed in the framework of the Costa Rica International Arts Festival.
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