The festival

1. International programme

Temporada Alta is well known for being the gateway of the latest foreign productions into Catalonia and the rest of Spain. It brings new international stage trends to the awareness of the Catalan public and helps put Catalonia on the international stage map. This year the Festival presents 28 foreign shows.

THEATRE-DANCE-CIRCUS

The international programme of theatre, dance and circus is one of the mainstays of the Festival and, as in previous years, Temporada Alta includes both new productions by old Festival favourites as well as first-timers, in an attempt to keep audiences and creators up-to-date with new international offers. Some of the most significant foreign artists to appear in Girona and Salt this autumn are:

• Krystian Lupa is undoubtedly one of a select group of two or three great directors in the world and at the same time an important creator for the festival (the foreign director who has brought the highest number of poroductions - 6 in all!). This year he gives us Waiting Room.0, a free adaptation of the novel The Human circle 3.1 by Lars Noren in which Lupa works with a wide group of young actors.
• Oskaras Korsunovas is the great Lithuanian director whose adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Miranda, should have inaugurated this year's Shakespeare's Festival in Mataró. We are putting on this play not only because Korsunovas is currently one of the "great" European stage directors, but also to show our solidarity with a festival that had its role in Catalonia but has been phased out in a frankly outrageous way.
• Lev Dodin and the Maly Drama Teatr from Saint Petersburg. Neither Dodin nor the Mali Drama Teatr have ever been to the Festival, so for this first visit we thought it would be ideal for them to present Oncle Vània by Chekhov. Dodin has been the director of the Maly Drama Teatr since 1983 and was winner of the 2009 European Theatre Prize.
• Ricardo Bartís is the "father" of a higly interesting group of Argentinian playrights that we have seen at the Festival (Veronese, Tolcachir, Daulte, Spregelburg, Pensotti, to name but a few) and is probably the reason why Argentina is providing some of the most exciting theatre in the world. A few years ago we saw La pesca (Fishing) at the Festival; this year he brings the second part of a trilogy about sports that will end next year with a show about football.
• Edward Hallandi Propeller. This totally male English company specialised in Shakesperian theatre has been to the Festival three times before and now returns with Enric V (Henry V), a play that will have only shortly before been premièred in London.
• Jan Fabre is a plastic artist, choreographer and Flemish director. He has already performed here several times before and now brings Preparatio Mortis,a dance-theatre solo around death. As Fabre says: "It is precisely through death that we learn to look differently at life."
• Christoph Marthaler is a director and unique creator on the international theatre scene. He has as many admirers (and we include ourselves among them! hence his frequent presence at the Festival) as critics, but he possesses a voice of his own that nobody can dispute. Els viatges de Lina Bögli (Lina Bögli's journeys) is a medium-size show premièred in 1996 that has currently been restaged.
• Peeping Tom is the Flemish dance-theatre company that turns the audience into voyeurs of the realistic yet dream-like world they create. A louer (To let) reaches the Festival soon after its première. It is coproduced by EL CANAL Centre d'Arts Escèniques of Salt/Girona and the Theâtre de l'Archipel in Perpignan in the framework of the Cross-border Catalan Stage project.
• Daniel Veronese, another regular at the Festival, brings us the third version of a text by Chekhov (in previous editions we have been able to see his version of Three Sisters: Un hombre que se ahoga (A man who drowns) and Uncle Vanya: Espia a una mujer que se mata (Spy on a woman who kills herself). Now he brings us Los hijos se han dormido (The kids have fallen asleep), his version of The Seagull.
• Angélica Liddell is now, surely, the most internationally renowned stage creator in Spain. Last year we were able to see El año de Ricard (Richard's year). This year she brings us the Spanish première of San Jerónimo (Saint Jerome), a performance-show premièred and produced by the Wiener Festwochen which has not been seen elsewhere since its première some months ago in Vienna.
• Romina Paula. These last few years Temporada Alta has been the gateway to Spain and Europe for many directors and shows from Argentina (Tolcachir, Pensotti, Veronese, Spregelburd, Bartís, among others). This year we present El tiempo todo entero (Everlasting time), an extremely free version of The glass menagerie by T.Williams staged by this as yet unknown director both in Spain and in Europe.
• Les 7 doigts de la main. We all know that Quebec is one of the most important cradles of contemporary international circus (Cirque Eloize, Cirque du Solei.). This year we are pleased to present another company Les 7 doigts de la main, which bring us Psy, a visual show that pairs the acrobacies of the body with those of the mind.
• Patrice Thibaut. Thibaut, a man trained at Deschamps & Deschamps, brought us Cocorico last year. This year's contribution is Jungles, in which this king of gestural and comedy theatre gives us his vision of the animal nature of human beings.
• Aurélia Thierrée and Victoria Thierrée-Chaplin. After touring for four years with L'Oratorio d'Aurélia, Aurélia Thierrée brings us a new show, Murmures des murs, coproduced by EL CANAL Centre d'Arts Escèniques of Salt/Girona and the Théâtre de l'Archipel in Perpignan within the framework of the European Cross-border Catalan Stage project.
• Lagartijas tiradas al sol is a Mexican group directed by Luisa Pardo and Gabino Rodríguez, one of last year's great international theatre revelations. In conjunction with the Paris Autumn Festival and the Teatro Central in Seville, we are proud to present El rumor del silencio (The sound of silence), the second part of their project Rebeldías (Rebellion) in which a historical event makes the group dream of a better world...

MÚSIC

This year, as regards music, audiences will be able to enjoy great artists from outside Catalonia, like Estrella Morente, Niña Pastori and the great Cuban musicians Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club with Omara Portuondo. They can also discover great voices from the contemporary jazz world, like the marvellous Lizz Wright. The singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, from the Ivory Coast, also presents his new album "African Revolution".

Catalan musicians also have a highly important role to play and Temporada Alta also brings the latest concerts of Sopa de cabra and Raimon, and of groups like Antònia Font. Anna Roig and L'ombre de ton chien perform their new album and Sílvia Pérez Cruz brings us a concert where she sings totally new songs.

But a large part of the musical programme is aimed at young people. We think we have managed to bring together some of the most interesting national and international names, groups that currently acclaimed by both audiences and critiics alike. Vetusta Morla bring their album Mapas; top club musicians and the tireless 2manydjs perform in La Mirona.

The singer Russian Red, the folk music of Herman Düne, and The Dø bringing the first performance of their new album in Spain, also form part of the Festival's programme.

Thursday nights in the sala Platea-Tourmix bring an eclectic programme of concerts, with groups like the versatile Maika Makovsky, Surfing Sirles and Esperit!, Gertrudis and Facto and Very Pomelo with La Iaia performing there. A varied programme for all audiences.

2. A driving force behind theatre creation

Temporada Alta has closely collaborated with EL CANAL Centre d'Arts Escèniques of Girona/Salt to produce, coproduce and collaborate in the production of 29 shows. It also coproduces shows with public theatres (TNC, Teatre Lliure, Mercat de les Flors), and private companies and producers (Cia Marta Carrasco, Cia Flyhard, Cia Sergi López, Studio Teatro-Sandra Toral, Cia Indigest, Gonzalo Cunill, El musical més petit, Los Corderos, Playground, El Pont Flotant, Escarlata Circus, Cia Marta Angelat, Projecte Galilei, among others) and small-format theatres like La Planeta, Sala Beckett and Sala Muntaner. Most of these shows will spend the season in Barcelona and later go on tour.

This allows many well established Catalan directors: Carles Santos, Mario Gas, Àlex Rigola, Joan Ollé and Xavier Albertí, Carles Alfaro, Los Corderos, Jordi Casanovas, Marta Angelat, Ramon Simó... to première works and guarantees that these shows will have a life beyond the Festival.

3. Catalan authorship

Catalonia has a greater number of authors and playwrights than its relatively small size accords. This means that there is a large critical mass which produces high quality works, perfectly comparable to those that come out of the mainstream literature (Cunillé, Miró, Santos, Galceran, Belbel, Benet i Jornet and so on). This is true both in the field of contemporary creation and above all, mainly thanks to the Sala Beckett, in playwrighting.

That's why Temporada Alta wants Catalan authors to be an important part in the Festival programme. This year, 52 of the 94 shows presented in the Festival are by Catalan authors - a detailed look will show you that there are internationally accaimed and well renowned authors as well as new budding authors just starting out on their chosen path, and writers who work in contemporary creation, circus and music.

To highlight how important we think creation is in Catalonia, this year's Festival includes a section that is entertaining yet displays the quality of Catalan authors: El Primer torneig de dramatúrgia catalana (The first Catalan playwrighting tournament), a "competition" with an elimination phase, semi-finals and final. In this contest, young playwrights (Pere Riera, Llàtzer García, Cristina Clemente and Guillem Clua) take on renowned authors that have been translated all over the world (J. M. Benet and Jornet, Jordi Galceran, Sergi Belbel and Pau Miró) in a "combat" in which the audience attending the play reading decides the winner in each phase.

4. Young artists and new creative projects

This year's Festival continues to present three great "levels" of stage creation: top international creators and renowned artists at home share the billing with some young creators we believe have a promising future ahead of them. Contemporary creators from Catalonia and Spain are also given a space on the programme. Temporada Alta is putting on works by Jordi Casanovas, loscorderos.sc, Jordi Bobés, Jordi Oriol, Àlex Serrano and Ferran Dordal, Ferran Joanmiquel, Jordi Prat i Coll, among others.

So just as, in the past, Temporada Alta put on shows by then unknown directors and authors such as Àlex Rigola, Xavier Albertí and Pau Miró, creators who now form the central corpus of Catalan theatre, the Festival aims to continue its commitment to young creators we really believe in, and to modestly help them grow.

5. Collaboration with EL CANAL- Centre d'Arts Escèniques of Salt/Girona

EL CANAL-Centre d'Arts Escèniques of Salt/Girona and Temporada Alta are two parts of the same project and that is why they work in conjunction to make Catalan theatre work and turn Girona/Salt into the theatre capital of Europe, both as a venue for performances, especially during the Festival, and as a creation venue during the remainder of the year.

To achieve this international status, EL CANAL-Centre d'Arts Escèniques of Salt/Girona and Temporada Alta are creating a network of international ties. They coproduce shows with great foreign companies (Peeping Tom, Aurélia Thierree), help projects that bring together Catalan artists with foreign creators (Pensotti with Casanovas, Fonalleras, Joanmiquel and Moliner and Blai Mateu) and produce shows by some of the Catalan artists with the greatest international projection (Santos, Rigola, Electrotoylets, Miróto, name but a few).

EL CANAL-Centre d'Arts Escèniques de Salt/Girona and Temporada Alta (as we have already said) place great importance on the Catalan authorship of works. This is achieved by delving into the historical roots of our culture and recuperating non-theatrical texts (Canigó by Verdaguer, Estimat Comadira directed by Joan Ollé and Xavier Albertí), and by producing new shows by Catalan authors (Carlos Santos, Pau Miró, Àlex Rigola, etc).

This is the last year of EU funding for the Cross-border Catalan Stage project, a joint project with the Théâtre de l'Archipel of Perpignan. This grant has enabled us to put the lines of work mentioned into action. That's why this edition of Temporada Alta has 12 shows produced by El Canal - Centre d'Arts Escèniques of Salt/Girona, which will make this project, which is locally based but has top-class international ambitions, clearly visible.

6. La internacionalització de l'escena catalana

Foreign programmers have been coming to Temporada Altafor several years. This year we have decided to let international programmers know what is being done in Catalonia, apart from the coproductions that we have spoken about in the previous section. This is the raison d'être of the programmers' week that has been scheduled during the Festival, which has three 'hooks' - Peeping Tom (with the show coproduced by El Canal- Centre d'Arts Escèniques of Salt/Girona), Daniel Veronese and Angélica Lidell - to draw their attention. This week includes the premières of new shows by Carles Santos, loscorderos.sc, Pont Flotant, Jordi Bovés, as well as the première of A vegades em sembla que et veig (Sometimes I think I see you) directed by Mariano Pensotti with Catalan authors.

The week is aimed at all international programmers, but twenty or so French and another twenty Catalan programmers will get together with three Catalan artists (Àlex Rigola, Mal Pelo and another to be decided) and three French artists. They will explain their own projects in an attemprt to find possible coproducers.

7. The audience

The task of the Festival is to put artists and their work in touch with audiences and to make audience numbers "grow" every year. Temporada Alta has always been obsessed with offering a wide-ranging and varied programme in which anybody (whether it be a 2-month-old child, a 25-year-old man only interested in techno, a recently arrived migrant, a refined cosmopolitan person keen on contemporary creation, or your favourite aunt) can find 4 or 5 shows that s/he might like. The programme is aimed at as wide an audience as possible but to achieve this without lowering the progamme quality we have opted to diversify it, seeking out what we have considered better for each kind of audience. At a time of great financial recession, it is very important to make good use of each euro spent. That's why it is even more important to ensure that spectator numbers are as high as possible to justify the efforts and the cost they suppose. By way of example, to show how we have tried to diversify the offer for family audiences, the programme includes:

• Concerts for babies - for children from 0 to 5 years
• The true story of Pinocchio - from the age of 2 years
• Gerónimo Stilton - from the age of 3 years
• S'ha acabat el bròquil (That's it; I've had enough) - from the age of 4 years
• Viatge a la lluna (Journey to the moon) - from the age of 4 years
• Petruixka (Petrushka)- from the age of 5 years
• Maiurta - from the age of 5 anys
• Mowgli, l'infant de la jungla (the jungle boy) - from the age of 6 years
• La bella dorment del bosc (the sleeping Beauty in the forest) - from the age of 7 years

All these shows are to be seen by parents and children together. In addition. especially for all those who may already be 7, there is also a Catalan and international programme for the whole family to see: PSY, Operetta, Murmure des murs, Jungles, and Mauirta.