La Cabeza del Bautista
music: E. Palomar 
libretto adapted by C. Wagner from a play by R. del Valle Inclán

Set design........Alfons Flores
Costume design........Mercè Paloma
Light design........Xavi Clot
Choreography........Marina Escoda
Conductor........Josep Caballé Domenech

première: 20 April 2009, Barcelona
company: Gran Teatro del Liceo, Spain

Reviews

The staging concept by Carlos Wagner is not realistic, even if some scenes are resolved in a drastically realist language. Much more at work are the metaphorical and the typifying of a down-and-out society: evil, brutalized characters, low instincts, suffering, cruelty, and greed. Alfons Flores created a symbolic single landscape, which gains in intensity through the lighting of Xavi Clot. After the prelude the curtain raises on a barren landscape. The exact direction of the actors and the committed play of the protagonists are the factors that bring life to this barren landscape. It was regrettable that only part of the audience seemed to value this impressive world premiere. Contemporary opera has not really arrived yet in Spain.

opernglas

Amongst the reproaches often directed at contemporary creations, there are at least two that don't apply to La Cabeza del Bautista: a lack of theatricality and long windedness ---one is all the more enticed since Carlos Wagner, also author of the libretto, creates a staging that fits the sonorities to perfection, as much of the text as of the music. The set is as simple as it is effective (three trees without foliage and a dozen billiard tables spread over the largely open stage of the Liceo), completed with costumes that fit the occasion.

opéra magazine

The right way for contemporary creation
--- the text by Ramón María del Valle Inclán has been excellently adapted by Carlos Wagner, who also did the staging --- The scenic approach of Carlos Wagner was vital, he clearly defines the context: the presence of billiard tables gives both a rustic and gloomy character, heightened with very accomplished lighting and an impeccable direction of movement. Each singer gets completely absorbed in their character.

El Mundo

Slaves to the word
Valle Inclán places the story in a Spanish café which Carlos Wagner recreates in a grandiose scenic space created by Alfons Flores, and illuminated with rich hues by Xavi Clot: rows of billiard tables and three trees that identify the rural context of the piece. Through this dreamy landscape pass cripples, blind men and beggars, powerful images - accomplished costumes by Mercè Paloma - that are pure Valle Inclán and also Buñuel and Azcona. The theatrical rhythm does not cease, nor the dramatic vigour: this "theatre of the grotesque" with biblical connotations offers many possibilities which Wagner resolves with splendid direction of his actors.

El Pais

One drama and three great voices
Fortunately the composer has managed to capture the essence of the atmosphere of Valle Inclán. His opera in one act, of little more than 90 minutes, works on a theatrical level thanks to an interesting libretto and careful staging - with a set by Alfons Flores - created and directed by Carlos Wagner, transforming the dump of a Galician rural village into an interesting and poetic space, through a libretto which, step by step, passes from a somewhat forced introduction to the actual heart of the matter: a biting drama in which also the emigration to Latin America finds a place.

La Razón

Music in osmosis with a text that cuts your breath
It's Carlos Wagner himself who signed the bewildering production. Drawing force, mystery, lyricism, in short the richness from the texts of Valle Inclán - that he stays totally faithful to - he confirms that he is of rising importance amongst the directors of his generation. The action on stage - sex and violence - even if they sometimes overstep the context of conventional theatre of the beginning of the 20th century of the works creation, find their place exactly in our times.
The single set is spacious, created by Alfons Flores, filled with billiard tables, which already figure in Valle Incláns play. The billiard game echoes the dramatic situation: Pepona (the red ball) is tossed between the two leading men (the two white balls), in an uncertain and macabre carambole.

webthea.com

A Pitiless View of Human Misery
The largely international audience that filled the Liceu (regular patrons alongside theatre managers and their staff, critics, composers and performers) responded with thunderous applause far beyond mere courtesy. Credit is due as well to principals. Conductor Josep Caballé-Domenech and director Carlos Wagner boosted the work’s surrealistic black humour with mercurial twists of pace among barren landscapes, thunderstruck trees and hosts of billiard tables turned into coffins by set designer Alfons Flores.

MusicalAmerica