CANTANIA: REAL

Repertoire

Xavier Pastrana: Real (2025) – World premiere, work commissioned by L’Auditori

Artists

Xavier Pastrana, composition
Lucia Ramis, dramaturgy

Elisenda Carrasco, Oriol Castanyer and Eva Martínez, musical direction
Cristina Martí and Adrià Aubert, stage direction
Josep Prats, musical coordination

Program

Cantania is a participatory activity involving Catalan primary school children between 8 and 12 years old. Every year a new work is commissioned especially for the activity. To date, the commissions have gone to renowned Catalan composers and writers.

Vera and Ernest are video game characters. Ernest wants to know what lies beyond the adventures they are compelled to repeat; he wants to get out of the frame in which they are trapped. Vera tells him that reality and fiction are the same, and that one serves to explain the other (through stories, fables or metaphors).
As he isn’t convinced, she shows him the lives of some boys and girls who are hooked on the video game they feature in. Then they both jump out into the real world, but Ernest is scared without the protection of the screen.
In fact, Vera and Ernest are also players who escaped from reality through a world in which they were immortal heroes. Now they have to learn that everyone is both a person and a character, real and as they are portrayed, playing their part in the game of life.