A couple of days before going to London to see Kamijo, I found out that a local music non-profit was staging Carmina Burana by Carl Orff in Madrid. Buying tickets (for that, and the upcoming opera Madama Butterfly) broke havoc with my credit cards, but everything was eventually fixed – I think. It had me stressed at the beginning of that trip, but it seems to be finally fixed. Again. I did have to miss Swan Lake in London because the credit cards would not go through.

Anyway, I had my ticket and though I would have loved to spend the day out, I was too ridiculously tired to take a whole day of sightseeing. Furthermore, the place I wanted to have lunch out was not taking reservations since they broadcast sports, and there was some big match or another. Yes, I want to go somewhere that defines itself as a sports bar, but that’s a story for another day (like the time I thought I could go to a sports bar during the Olympics because “Oh, well, there’s nothing sporty going on, right?”).

I thus decided to head off with a small pre-show plan, which turned out to be a great idea. When I alighted from the train station, the streets were clear for the Pride parade – I do not think I have ever seen the area surrounding Estación de Atocha so empty. I walked towards the theatre Teatro Real, but my first stop was the underground station of Opera, home to one of the Underground museums Museos de Metro de Madrid. Unlike the others, this is only tangentially related to the underground system itself – it is an archaeological museum, hosting an ancient fountain, part of an aqueduct, and the remains of a sewer.

King Felipe II made Madrid the capital of Spain in 1561, and aside of some brief periods of strife, it remains so to the present day. That has implied a lot of changes through history – among them, the destruction of the city walls, and the construction of an aqueduct to provide the city with water. When the court moved there, the villa of Madrid was little more than a village whose population skyrocketed in a couple of years. The new city needed services as it grew.

One of these was the fountain called Caños del Peral (literally something like “Peartree faucets”). The fountain was 34 metres long and it channelled water from the stream that ran down what is now Arenal Street. It was built in local limestone, had six faucets, and it probably was the largest fountain in the area where it was built in the late 1500s – the outskirts. Ironically, today it is quite close to the centre of the city, even the middle of Spain, the so-called “Zero Kilometre” in the square Puerta del Sol.

The fountain was destroyed during the reign of José I (Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, who was installed as king of Spain between 1808 and 1813). Caños del Peral, along with the buildings around the square, were demolished and used to fill the gorge that until then had separated Madrid in two. And in that filled gorge it was discovered in the early 2000s during works to refurbish the underground station of Ópera. Further works uncovered the sewer from the same period, a structure that channelled black waters away from the drinking streams for sanitation.

The aqueduct Viaje de Amaniel was built around 1615 century to bring clean water to the Royal Palace, and with time it also supplied other properties. The infrastructure was heavily remodelled in the 18th century, after the Royal Palace was rebuilt into its current form after the fire that destroyed the original alcázar.

As I was coming out from the little museum and the underground system, I noticed a display reading that the underground / train station that I needed after the show was closed “until end of service”. Which was good to know beforehand, since I had time to replan my route – the trains were a mess in the evening due to Pride, and a few stations being closed off for crowd control. I grabbed a snack at the local Starbucks and headed into the theatre.

The Royal Opera of Madrid Teatro Real opened in 1850. It was originally designed by José Manuel González-Valcárcel, though it has been widely renovated, with the latest iteration dating from 1997. It is considered the most important venue for performing and musical arts in Spain – despite having been closed for decades at a time. Curiously, the theatre has the shape of a coffin – at first, I really thought that was my imagination, but apparently it is not only real but intentional.

I had found really good tickets, first floor next to the Royal Booth – for the same price, I would later get a fifth / sixth floor ticket for Madama Butterfly. The repertory had been put together by Fundación Excelentia, a non-profit foundation dedicated to promote and divulge lyrical heritage and musical values.

Programme:
  First part:
  1. Beethoven: Egmont. Overture: Sostenuto, ma non troppo – Allegro
  2. Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93
  Second Part:
  3. Carl Orff: Carmina Burana

The show was conducted by Juan Pablo Valencia and interpreted by the orchestra Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, the choir Sociedad Coral Excelentia de Madrid, soprano Rocío Martínez, baritone Manuel Mas and countertenor David Miranda.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770? – 1827) is considered one of the most important figures in Western music. Born in Germany, his works bridged the classical and romantic periods in classical music. His works are amongst the most performed in the world, even though he began losing his hearing halfway through his career. He composed Egmont around 1810 for a full symphonic orchestra, and Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93 in 1812. The Symphony has four movements: Allegro vivace e con brio (F major), Allegretto scherzando (B flat major), Tempo di menuetto (F major), and Allegro vivace (F major). I am not the biggest Beethoven fan, to be honest, but it was good. The conductor had a great time.

My main reason to be there was the second part of the show: Carmina Burana (Officially Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis which translates from Latin as “Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images”, quite a mouthful). German author Carl Orff (1895 – 1982) composed the cantata between 1935 and 1936. Most of the lyrics are in Latin, though there is a bit of old German and even old French. The cantata has 25 movements based on 24 Medieval poems, with the first and last movements being the same: O fortuna, which happens to be one of my favourite choir pieces ever. There is one instrumental-only piece, and all the others have vocals – for choir, soprano, baritone and countertenor.

The twenty-five movements are organised in sections, which are officially five, but divided as:

• Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, empress of the world): 1. O fortuna (Oh, fortune), as I mentioned, I love this choir; 2. Fortune plango vulnera (Regret for the wounds of fortune).
• I. Primo vere (In spring): 3. Veris leta facies (The joyous face of Spring); 4. Omnia Sol temperat (All the things are warmed by the sun); 5. Ecce gratum (Behold the welcome)
• Uf dem anger (In the meadow): 6. Tanz (Dance), the only instrumental movement in the cantata; 7. Floret silva nobilis (The noble woods bloom); 8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir (Monger, give me a coloured paint); 9a Reie (Round dance); 9b Swaz hie gat umbe (Those who dance around); 9c Chume, chum, geselle min (Come my dear companion); 9d: Swaz hie gat umbe reprise; 10. Were diu werlt alle min (If the whole world were mine)
• II. In taberna (In the tavern): 11. Estuans interius (Seething internally); 12. Olim lacus colueram (I once swam in lakes) – this is the piece the countertenor sang, and I am not completely sure the guy was drunk, or playing drunk. 13. Ego sum abbas (I am the abbot); 14. In taberna quando sumus (When we are in the tavern)
• III. Cour d’amour: 15. Amor volat undique (Love flies everywhere) I have to admit that I did not love the soprano, who sang for the first time at this piece – she sang well, but too low, it was difficult to hear her at times; 16. Dies, nox et omnia (Day, night and everything); 17. Stetit puella (There stood a girl); 18. Circa mea pectora (Inside my chest). 19. Si puer cum puellula (If a boy with a girl). 20. Veni, veni, venias (Come, come, please come) – these are the same lyrics that Final Fantasy VII’s theme for Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel has, and looking at the translation, now I understand why it was never intended to be the psychotic mass-murderer theme… 21. In trutina (On the scales); 22. Tempus est iocundum (Time to jest); 23. Dulcissime (Sweetest lad)
• Blanziflor et Helena (Blancheflour and Helen); this refers to the romance story of Blancheflour and to Helen of Troy. 24. Ave formosissima (Hail to the loveliest)
• Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: 25. O fortuna (Oh, fortune)

All in all, it was a great experience, and I had a privileged seat. I really enjoyed the show, as it was expected from something at the Teatro Real. The gentleman next to me slept through the first part and hummed along the second, which was weird. The soprano’s voice was too faint and she tended to sing towards the other side of the theatre, making it hard to hear her, but the baritone was good. The choir was fantastic, and the percussion musicians had a perfectly choreographed exchange of positions to play all the small parts which was really amusing to watch. Especially one who hugged the gong to quiet down the reverberations.

When I came out the theatre, I headed off towards the underground system and reached the train station, which took over 20 minutes – normally, I would have just walked to Sol and take the first train there to connect faster, and stay within the same system. As Sol was closed, this was not an option. When I arrived at Atocha, the platform was almost overflowing as the trains were running with long delays. I think I took a train that should have passed through around 22:30… at 23:00. I was not sure everyone would fit in the train, to be honest. Good thing that they announced a second one for a few minutes later. I made it home past midnight, took a shower and crashed because it was hot – Spain in July. What else is new?