Summer Festival 2023: A Cantiga by Alfonso X

In collaboration with Instituto Cervantes

Paloma Gutierrez del Arroyo (voice)
Manuel Vilas Rodriguez (harp)

A cantiga is a medieval monophonic song, characteristic of the Galician-Portuguese lyric. Over 400 extant cantigas come from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, composed by Alfonso X El Sabio; narrative songs or hymns in praise of the Holy Virgin. This cantiga - 'CXV The Longest Cantiga', represents a concerted effort to reproduce this genre for a modern audience, presenting a combination of three different arts: lyrics/poetry, painted miniatures, and music notation. 'CXV' narrates the miracle of a child who travels for several years seeking salvation from the coming of the devil at his fifteenth birthday. The child travels from Rome to Paris, Armenia, and Antioch, where he encounters a Pope, the Patriarch of Syria, the Mother, the Devil, an angel, a hermit, and the Virgin Mary. Behind this performance, a screen will project the original miniatures which accompany the cantiga as well as surtitles.

Paloma Gutierrez del Arroyo

Singer Paloma Gutierrez del Arroyo specialises in occidental medieval repertoires (before 1500). She trained with Katarina Livljanic, Benjamin Bagby, Raphaël Picazos and Isabelle Ragnard at Université Paris Sorbonne; Dominique Vellard at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis; Raphaël Picazos at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départamental de Val Maubuée; Claudia Caffagni at the Centro di formazione permanente per la musica e le arti del medioevo; Catherine Schroeder, Brigitte Lesne, Catherine Sergent, Lucie Jolivet, Thierry Cornillon, Gérard Geay at the Centre de Musique Médiévale de Paris; with Lucien Kandel, Marc Busnel, Katarina Livljanic, Susan Rankin, Joško Caleta, Jean-Baptiste Lebigue and Benjamin Bagby at the Fondation Royaumont; Dominique Vellard, Anne Delafosse, Anne Marie Lablaude and Marie Noël Colette at the Académie de Musique Ancienne du Thoronet.

Paloma is co-founder of Italian-Spanish ensemble Puy de sons d´autrefois and French Ensemble Oiet. She regularly works with singer Catherine Schroeder, multi-instrumentalist Bill Cooley, the harpist Manuel Vilas, and collaborates with ensembles including the French Azalaïs, Le jardin des délices and Dialogos, the Spanish Ars Combinatoria and Malandança, and the Italian La Reverdie and La Frottola. She has participated in French medieval music projects: Rosace and Contrafacta, and has also sung in theatre pieces (recently in duo with the actor Philippe Borrini and together with the storyteller Carole Visconti) and in contemporary music projects (having premiered Sasha Zamler-Carhart´s oratory Sponsus, 2012, and compositions by Arantxa Lorenzo de Reizábal and Jean-Marie Gagez).

Paloma has recorded CDs with harpist Manuel Vilas (released on March 2020 by the Dutch label Etcetera-records with the music of the XIIth century troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn: Chantador de joi d’amor) and the Cantaderas ensemble (a dialogue between medieval Cantigas de Santa María and Spanish traditional music).

Paloma recently founded a new school of Medieval Music and Oral Tradition Music in Madrid: "Escuela de Música Medieval y de Tradición Oral", at the fondation Francisco Giner de los Ríos.

Manuel Vilas Rodriguez

Born in Santiago de Compostela, where he began his musical studies, Vilas studied ancient harps from the XII to XVIII centuries in Madrid with Nuria Llopis and in Milan with Mara Galassi. He has collaborated with numerous groups, and has performed as a soloist in some of the most prestigious festivals in Spain, Germany, Cuba, USA, Ecuador, Czech Republic, Austria, Colombia, Portugal, Switzerland, Paraguay, France, Bolivia, Belgium, Argentina, Italy, Chile and Holland amongst others. He also often offers lectures, courses and masterclasses in locations including San Sebastian, Santiago de Chile, Zaragoza, Amherst, Santiago de Compostela, and Havana. He has collaborated as both accompanist and soloist in more than 60 albums for various record labels. In 2008, he founded the ensemble Ars Atlantica that specialises in the mod􀀺rn recovery and reproduction in concert of the cantatas from the Contarini Palace, performed alongside mezzo-soprano Marta Infante. Vilas is known as a pioneer of the interpretation of both the double harp of the Crown of Aragon (14th century) and the Chiquitana harp (Bolivia, 18th century). He was recently invited to represent Spain in the VI World Harp Festival in Asuncion (Paraguay).

Learn more about Alfonso X and cantigas here.