Ken Follett on the musical ‘The Pillars of the Earth’: “It seemed crazy to me that they did this” | Culture | EUROtoday

When Ken Follett wrote The pillars of the earthlittle did he know that his story would promote practically 200 million copies and grow to be one of many best-selling books in historical past. Nor did I think about that it might adapt to radio, tv and the world of video video games. But if there’s something that he couldn’t suspect, even together with his novel already turning into a worldwide phenomenon, it was sitting in the midst of the surroundings that recreates his world in a musical present. And his fable, set within the twelfth century and with a plot that mixes feudal violence with energy conflicts between the Aristocracy and the Church, has as its centerpiece the development of an infinite cathedral that’s destroyed in the midst of historical past and construct once more. “It seemed crazy to me that they did this. “I’m sitting here, seeing everything done, and I think: ‘Did I really write this?'” Follett said this Tuesday in the middle of the pillars with religious figures and the wooden beams that frame the first musical adaptation in the world of The pillars of the eartha Beon Entertainment production that premieres this Wednesday at the EDP theater on Madrid’s Gran Vía.

It was as unthinkable for Follett as it was for Federico Barrios that a “crazy man,” the producer Darío Regattieri, invited him to direct the work. “It is a very big challenge when you do a project like this, a novel so long and so internalized in people’s minds, maintaining its essence,” says Barrios. Beyond tips on how to materialize the development of the cathedral, the present needed to summarize the just about 1,000 pages of the novel and the 47 years of historical past that happen in them, in two and a half hours of theater. The artistic workforce had determined to take a threat with the development of their explicit cathedral: a musical from scratch, an authentic proposal, not quite common on the musical billboard in Madrid, stuffed with Broadway replicas. And this, just like the English author’s cathedral, additionally had its personal explicit collapse.

Darío Regattieri is all the pieces you count on if you consider a musical theater producer. His head goes 1,000 kilometers per hour and it reveals. “First of all, can I take your bag?” he says with the bag—extra like a backpack—already in hand, upon receiving the journalist in a cafeteria final week. “Let me put her in the chair, otherwise the money goes away,” he continues, with a international accent (born in Switzerland to Italian mother and father). And he finishes his welcome phrase: “The bags are never put on the ground.” He is the one in command of paying the payments on the finish of the month and the one who invested greater than 4 million euros to create the present. When he talks about cash, he appears to realize it greater than anybody else. “The truth is that we are crazy. We went into the lion’s den. Making a production like this is not difficult, no. “It’s what comes next,” he says. From him and Iván Macías, the composer of the musical, the concept of ​​staging the novel arose in 2017. An concept that, at first, didn’t obtain the approval of the writer.

“He didn’t know us,” says Macías. “We went to ask and received what we expected, a no.” But the refusal didn’t cease him from beginning the work. On the opposite, he inspired it: “I started composing and working for hours and then we came back, with the proposal much more grounded and with a large part of the music done.” From that work, even with out understanding if it might be carried out on stage, greater than a dozen songs got here out, now recorded with an orchestra and which, beginning this Wednesday, will likely be carried out by seven musicians dwell. This is how the composer summarizes his artistic course of: “What I do is do a very deep reading of the text and identify the emotions of the characters. I try to feel what the author felt when writing the text and what the readers feel when reading it. The next step is to stay with the emotions, remove the words and transfer those emotions to music. From there the dramaturgy is made.” And that music is the premise of the present. Follett accepted after the second contact. “I think he understood that we were very respectful of his work. He heard the music and immediately connected with the project. “He saw truth and respect,” says Macías.

Félix Amador added lyrics to the music, additionally in command of controlling the period of the present with out dropping the essence of the dramaturgy. A problem that, as he explains, elevated as a result of “there is not just one protagonist, but seven. And many other important characters.” His secret to reaching it: specializing in the characters and their tales. With the dramaturgy prepared, the work was scheduled to premiere in 2020. But the symbolic cathedral that they had been constructing, already in superior works, noticed its roof destroyed with the arrival of the pandemic.

“We closed and put everything back, waiting for better times,” says the producer. Later, Beon, with the well being restrictions over, determined to placed on one other musical, with a smaller price range and simpler to make: The physicianadditionally an adaptation of one other greatest vendor namesake, this one by Noah Gordon. Reflection of a selected style that the manufacturing firm has for authentic productions. “We want to be exporters,” says Regattieri. This 12 months, seven after work started on The pillars of the earthmanufacturing lastly started to materialize. But the primary thriller, what aroused probably the most doubts firstly, remained unresolved: how is a cathedral constructed on stage?

Ricardo S. Cuerda, the set designer in command of the present, is obvious: “It is impossible to build a cathedral in a theater.” But it additionally gives an answer. “It has to be done with symbolic elements that maintain the emotion that this construction generates,” he says. But their work, past the artistic answer to beat that problem, includes far more. “Everyone talks about the cathedral, but much more happens. There are fights, the coronation of a king, markets, castles, much more,” says Cuerda. Its scenography isn’t solely mirrored within the stage field, but additionally goes out into the stalls. He has transformed the whole room right into a twelfth century development, additionally utilizing 360º expertise that, with projections on the partitions, contributes to the creation of the setting.

From the Gothic cathedral, what has materialized within the EDP theater is a big multicolored rose window that begins a “Oh, wow” by Ken Follett upon seeing it. The beforehand skeptical author, nonetheless with out seeing the present, already makes the primary evaluation: “It is a great moment for me, it is a testimony of the story I have written, the confirmation that it can be transformed into a completely different medium. But it is still my story, it has touched my heart.” But the inevitable uncertainty that comes with a brand new manufacturing like this has not but deserted the artistic workforce. “Scary, yes. And also in the world of musicals it happens that, if it is successful, it is thanks to the production, and if not, it is the fault of the director,” displays Federico Barrios. His producer shares the uncertainty: “We don’t know how people are going to react, that’s just how it is. And in this, desire and work are not enough, you have to have an economic return.” That doesn’t forestall, nevertheless, his producer’s thoughts from serious about the longer term earlier than understanding what’s going to occur. “I’m telling you from now on, we want to export this product. Our goal is to get to Broadway and we will achieve it,” he assures.