In this valley of Xareta, dozens of volunteers are currently working on the verse text by the author Gerardo Mungia (Pamplona), who…
In this valley of Xareta, dozens of volunteers are currently working on the text in verse by the author Gerardo Mungia (Pamplona), which will become, next October 15 and 16, a pastoral of some three hours, performed in the caves of Zugarramurdi.
“It’s a wonderful experience of collective work. Everyone has an important role to play and everyone’s talent can thus be revealed”, enthuses the former social worker, retired, and above all “errejent”, or pastoral mistress for the fourth recovery.
Pantxika Urruty in 2018, during the rehearsal of a previous pastoral.
Archives Emilie Drouinaud
The one who grew up in Soule knows the subtleties and codes of pastorals, both representations of the world and pieces of bravery (dance, song, etc.). Above all, Pantxika Urruty appreciates the long-term weaving, through rehearsals every fortnight on Sundays, by its many craftsmen, followed by a meal for 70 people concocted by the volunteers.
“In the pastoral, there are five disciplines: the text, the dance, the songs, the music and the costumes”, details the director. Arnaud Izal and Pierre Goya work on the choreography, Mrylis Daguerre is the choirmaster, Patrick Calvet animates about fifteen musicians from the four municipalities, but also from Etxalar, the eight costume designers are led by Beronik Ondikola, etc.
The pastoral “Maddi transformed into a deer” will be presented on October 15 in the caves of Zugarramurdi in Navarre.
Gerard Pommez
In the belly of the cave
The pastoral of the legend of Maddi, prepared on both sides of the Xareta valley “as if there were no border”, mobilizes 70 actors, including 11 children, and Améli Harocarenea, a young dancer in her twenties, from Zugarramurdi , who will play the title role. She will have to memorize 24 verses, two solo songs, two duet songs, and all the songs sung together. “A pastoral is assessed according to the voices found in harmony with the different roles, and the expressiveness of the actors, who are not made up. »
In the symbolic universe of the pastoral, the wicked enter through the red door, and the good through the blue door, and the men of the Church and the shepherds, sometimes through the white one, adds the errejent. For the purposes of Maddi the Doe’s pastoral, the blue door has been turned green, perfectly suited to the forest that borders the belly of the Zugarramurdi caves.
Among the “reds” of this singular pastoral, where the animal kingdom (deer, mouse, squirrel) figures on stage, “there are characters who have painfully marked the Basque Country, the inquisitors and preachers, including Pierre de Lancre. They come to fight with the people of the village. »
70 amateur actors will follow one another on stage during the October 15 premiere.
DR
The text draws from universal sources, from a legend transcribed in the 18e century, and fished out in the 1960s by Canon Pierre Lafitte. “It was taken over by singers, including Benito Lertxundi”, comments Pantxika Urruty, before telling the story, half-word.