Alejandro presents project at Barcelona Solo Festival

Published: 22 December 2016 at 10:08

Performing Arts Lecturer puts on Copla musical theatre show

In November 2016, Lecturer in Performing Arts Alejandro Postigo-Gomez (pictured) presented his project ‘The Copla Musical’ at the Barcelona Solo Festival.

The Copla Musical is a musical theatre show inspired by traditional Spanish Copla folk songs performed in English. The piece tells the compelling story of drag artist La Gitana, who escaped Franco’s dictatorship in Spain to become a variety star in America.  Once there, La Gitana had to deal with issues of cultural and sexual identity: living in-between genders and countries, and belonging to none for survival.

The show explores the intercultural adaptation of Copla, a genre of music repressed by Franco’s dictatorship and ultimately lost in history - until this story unfolds. Drag artist La Gitana re-enacts a series of subversive, queer and political 20th century Spanish folk songs that haven’t since been seen outside Spanish speaking borders and presented, for the first time in history, in English. The musical is an intercultural project that aims to engage international audiences by blending core features from Anglo-Spanish cultural settings and expand the avenues for musical theatre experimentation.

Alejandro reported that the event was "...a great experience, as the institution hosting the event was British but based in Spain, so the contents of the show resonated with a truly multicultural Spanish-based audience."