On Friday, December 13, we began preparing one of the projects that has demanded the most from us in terms of preparation and organization, especially on an individual level: Selkie. Ahead of us lay a few days of intense work and a Lítore gathering where composer Brais González played a prominent role. In this article, we share all the details of our last gathering of 2024 and our visits to the Auditorio de Torroso, the Teatro El Albéitar in León, and the Sala Cultural Sant Diego in Alaior!
The first rehearsal was key to analyzing the state of the piece and deciding which direction to work on in the coming days. After this initial session, the general feeling was one of relief and motivation: the individual work had been productive. This meant that, with just a few more rehearsals, the piece would be more than ready for its premiere.
On Saturday, December 14, we worked intensively with Brais, morning and afternoon, focusing on strictly musical details, moments of declamations accompanied by music, and text interpretation. For us, it was fascinating to delve into a kind of work we had never done before and face the challenges of Selkie. How to project our voices, how to be natural and expressive in declamations, or how to coordinate in unconventional spatial arrangements were some of the biggest challenges. This workday was essential to finalizing the piece’s staging details, which were defined thanks to ideas that emerged during rehearsals.
On Sunday, December 15, we worked intensely again, this time without Brais, focusing on minimizing mistakes related to performing from memory. After our intense individual memorization processes, the group rehearsals were very helpful in internalizing the music, determining stage movements, and giving meaning to the dialogues.
On Monday, December 16, once again with Brais, we held a full dress rehearsal, which was the first complete performance of the piece, including offstage voices, costumes, and props. Between this intensive day and the morning of Tuesday, we finalized the details for the premiere in Torroso.
On Tuesday, December 17, Selkie premiered with an audience of 109 people, making for a wonderful experience. If you want to learn more about this day and everything this project’s realization means to us, don’t miss our next blog post!
The next morning, Lítore and Brais headed to León. We brought Selkie to a theater already familiar to us, the Teatro El Albéitar, one of the city’s cultural landmarks. There, we were able to explore more lighting and staging effects thanks to the venue’s conditions and enjoy the project without the tension of the premiere.
After a few more relaxed days, on Saturday, December 21, we flew to Menorca, an island that welcomed us for the first time. Thanks to Joventuts Musicals de Alaior, we brought the new project to our beloved Balearic Islands, specifically to the Sala Cultural Sant Diego in Alaior. Although Brais couldn’t travel with us, we had the help of our friend Ángela Foved, who assisted us with the technical aspects of the piece during the performance on Sunday, December 22.
On Monday, December 23, we said our goodbyes at Mahón Airport and headed home for Christmas. This project was a professional challenge that we successfully overcame. Now it’s time to keep improving Selkie and work towards many more tours like this. We would like to sincerely thank our families, Brais González, the director of the Torroso Conservatory Rubén García, the University of León, the organization of Joventuts Musicals de Menorca, and Ángela Foved: without them, this project wouldn’t have been possible.
Until next time!
