Uirapuru danced in Madrid

The Argentine choreographer Dani Pannullo and his dance company present Uirapuru, based on Villa-Lobos' great early orchestral masterpiece. The music is played by JORCAM, conducted by Jordi Frances-Sanjuan. This is from 2011.

Uirapuru in Buenos Aires

Villa-Lobos wrote his great orchestral work Uirapuru in 1917*, and it was adapted by Serge Lifar as a ballet in 1935. The premiere of the ballet was at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires on May 25, 1935, on the occasion of a state visit by President Vargas. The picture above, from the Museu Villa-Lobos, is from the new 1940 version of the ballet, choreographed by Vaslav Veltchek.

* Or did he? Villa often revised his early works, and in the case of the Sexteto mistico, lost the score and re-composed it from memory many years later. If the Uirapuru score indeed comes from 1917, it's Villa's earliest orchestral masterpiece, but Mario de Andrade believed it was substantially re-written for the 1935 performance.

Here is an excellent version of Uirapuru: the Orquesta Sinfonica de RTVE is conducted by Carlos Kalmar.

Amazon Trilogy Ballet in Rio de Janeiro

Photo: Júlia Rónai

One of the major cultural events taking place in Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics is the ballet Trilogia Amazônica, presented at the Theatro Municipal from August 3rd to 14th. Here are the credits:

AMAZON TRILOGY - Ballet in three parts

BALLET AND ORCHESTRA SYMPHONY OF MUNICIPAL THEATRO

Music - Heitor Villa-Lobos

Part I - Uirapuru

The Bird Forest (Canto III of The Amazon Forest , 1958) Uirapuru (1917)
Choreography - Daniela Cardim

Part II - Erosion

Erosion, the source of the Amazon River (1950)
Choreography - Luiz Fernando Bongiovanni
Choreography Assistant - Nina Botkay

Part III - Dawn

Dawn in the Rainforest (1953) Amazons (1917) Choreography - Marcelo Gomes Costume - Rene Salazar Scenario - Gringo Cardia Lighting - Maneco Quinderé Regency - Tobias Volkmann

More on this here.

Isaac Karabtchevsky conducts Uirapuru

Isaac Karabtchevsky conducts the Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica in the Uirapuru, from a March 2016 concert.

Uirapuru from Madrid

I've been waiting for this to show up on YouTube. It's another part of a concert in San Lorenzo del Escorial from April 17, 2011, with Jordi Francés Sanjuán conducting JORCAM (Joven Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid). This is the 2nd half of the great early ballet score, Uirapuru. YouTube also has videos of Bachianas Brasileiras #8 from the same concert.  This is an excellent performance by these young musicians, and the HD version of the video is stunning.

Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires

Orchestras are becoming more adventurous when it comes to programming Villa-Lobos works. It's not just about the Guitar Concerto, a couple of the Bachianas Brasileiras, and the Saxophone Fantasia any more.

Two great Villa-Lobos conductors, Enrique Arturo Diemecke and John Neschling, will be conducting some really interesting works with the Filarmónica de Buenos Aires this season.

Neschling has included Choros #06 in the program of his May 14, 2009 concert (along with Camargo Guarnieri's Encantamiento, and works by Haydn and Sibelius). Of course, Neschling is quite an expert on the Choros series, with his amazing recordings on the BIS label.

Diemecke, who is the Music Director in Buenos Aires, has included two works that are very rare in concert: Uirapuru on July 2, and The Discovery of Brazil on August 6.

[Photo: Miguel Micciche - OFBA. Archivo fotográfico del Teatro Colón]