"Culturally, we’ve never been well, the recent crisis has not helped and we are not able to recover," said this Friday, the actor Nuno Lopes, so in short some of the reasons that have led to the closure of the Teatro da Cornucópia, announced a few days ago.
"I Hear talk of a crisis in the arts since I began to represent in 1996. It seems to me that the end of the Cornucopia is more of a symptom of a country that does not protect its artists and its culture and that survives much more of a culture outside of Portugal," said the actor, in a telephone conversation.
The first show of Nuno Lopes at the Cornucopia was "The Seven Infants (Legend of the Seven Infantes of Lara)", with presentations in the Theater District in June of 1997.
"this Is my house, it was there that I learned to be an actor, at that time was still in the first year of the Conservatory. For a long time, I was part of all the shows of the company, it was there that I learned to know to remove a character from a text, but above all, I learned an ethic and a morality professional that still today influence me."
About the legacy of the company founded in 1973 by Luis Miguel Cintra, Jorge Silva Melo, Nuno Lopes highlights the "way of looking at the world and the attention to what goes on in society through large texts, some ancient".
The Cornucopia was a house of thought, with seriousness, a place where I learned and it was transmitted to be on stage is a political responsibility, and social. Hundreds of actors have passed through there, I do not believe that someone does not have been marked by this experience. Worked truly together, as it should always be in the theater, in a way familiar and friendly, but very serious. We learned that being on stage is a way policy be in life," notes Nuno Lopes.
In an interview published this Friday in the Observer, Luís Miguel Cintra, responsible for the company’s lisbon, has justified the closure with the lack of subsidies from the State and his consequent refusal to "turn in aesthetics, something that is only precarious, the policy of saving and spending."
Jorge Salavisa proved to be "shocked" with the news, but claims to be understandable the reasons Luís Miguel Cintra.
"I Spoke with him, I know that there are a number of circumstances, including the wear with the bureaucracies, certain misunderstandings of the guardianship and of the people who have the destinies of the country in cultural terms, but it is also the age does not forgive. Luis Miguel is a person very honest and conscientious, with certain health problems, and this personal factor also counts. We must understand his choice, he is a man extremely clever."
Former director of the Gulbenkian Ballet, the National Ballet Company, Teatro Municipal São Luiz and Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Jorge Salavisa has scheduled two shows at the Cornucopia: "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar", by Shakespeare, in 2007, and "The City", collage of texts of Aristophanes, in 2010.
in Addition to expressing "great admiration" for the work of Luís Miguel Cintra and Cristina Reis, scenographer and costume designer of the Cornucopia since 1975, Salavisa recalled the shows "absolutely memorable and accurate", "very important" to their training, as a spectator and programmer. "It’s a whole season ends up," he lamented.
In a written statement sent through the office of the press, the Ministry of Culture said it has "closely monitored" the situation of the Teatro da Cornucópia and "regrets the closure" of a structure of a theatre that classifies as "of the most important in the history of Portuguese theatre".
The ministry of Luís Filipe Castro Mendes also said that the Cornucopia "has been and continues to be" subsidized by the General Direction of the Arts, but did not comment on the amount of the grant.
In relation to the property occupied by the Cornucopia, number 1-The of Rua Tenente Raul Cascais, between the Mouse and the Prince Royal, the ministry said that this "heritage private".
Still, the government "will ensure the rental of the building for a period of over a year, so that the process of closing, and all the jobs that there are, are conducted in appropriate conditions".
The director Filipe La Féria described the shutdown as "an irreparable loss and unacceptable". "The Cornucopia is one of the most important companies in the history of Portuguese theatre. The closure is understandable, due to the lack of funding, but also decent, through the stage of life that Luis Miguel Cintra is going through. But we get to this point is the failure of any cultural policy. I hope that the government can still take action to prevent the closure," he argued.
Filipe La Féria was at the beginning of the Cornucopia, and participated as an actor in the first show of the company, "The Misanthrope", by Moliere, in October 1973, in the Theatre, Laura Alves, to the side of Cintra, Jorge Silva Melo, Wisteria Quartin, Carlos Fernando, Raquel Maria, Orlando Costa, Carlos Fernando, Luís Lima Barreto and Delilah Rock. Entered also in the play "The Island of the Slaves and The Inheritance," of Marivaux, in march 1974, in the Capitol.
At the beginning, the company has had a lot of trouble if say, also because of the lack of resources, only much later is that this has happened. But already then the Luís Miguel Cintra was a person of enormous talent, was perhaps one of the greatest actors with whom I had the good fortune of others", ranked La Féria.
"The seriousness is the main inheritance that the Cornucopia in the leaves. At this time, puts the economy above all, I think that a cultural policy worthy of the name cannot function as well, and I’m free to talk because I don’t have subsidies from the State and I’ve never had. It seems to me very cruel that the company is not to be supported. I wish the prime minister, who is a man of culture, one of the few that will even see the theatre, don’t let it happen this outcome monstrous," said La Feria.
Opinion, the most optimistic was expressed by the teacher João Paulo Santos, director of the Office of Studies and Musical Dramaturgy of the National Theatre of São Carlos, whose collaboration with the Cornucopia began in the mid-90s and lasted until today. "I already expected this to happen, but for a long time did not know what form it would take. Suddenly, he took the form of launching a book and a recital," explained João Paulo Santos.
he Referred to the meeting scheduled for Saturday, 16: 00, at the headquarters of the Cornucopia, in which it will be presented the second volume of the catalogue of all the productions of the company, this time from the 2001 to 2016, and there is space for a recital free admission with essays by the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire
On the occasion will be launched the DVD with the filmed version by Joaquim Pinto and Nuno Leonel of the spectacle "End of Quote", 2010.
[excerpt from the film "End of Quote"]
João Paulo Santos noted that the fact that the company tried to does not mean that Luís Miguel Cintra withdraws from the activity. "It will show if there are opportunities, the artists do not disappear by disappear a company."
The last collaboration between the maestro and Cintra was in the opera "Dialogues des Carmélites", Francis Poulenc, presented in São Carlos, in February of this year. "When you do a balance sheet would tell banalities, I prefer to say only that the Cornucopia had an activity very striking and it will not be possible to speak of the theatre in the second half of the TWENTIETH century in Portugal without talking about this company."
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