Recently, I've been privileged to photograph in the rehearsals of a new show by an important director here in Spain, Albert Boadella. The show is called El Pimiento Verdi (a Spanish play on words with a restaurant called El Pimiento Verde [The Green Pepper] and Verdi's bicentennial) and is a 'operatic duel' between Don Guiseppe and Herr Wagner, also in his bicentenary year. The idea was to photograph the performers and the rehearsals, and what happens therein, rather than to photograph the finished show in an unfinished and ultimately less visually exciting form ... therefore the photographs are generally more portraits/candids and photographs of moments, scenes being performed for the first time, or reactions to said scenes ...
44 (we originally intended to choose 30 ... failed, got to 37 and then added some more back in for editorial reasons) of my photographs from the rehearsals are now exhibited alongside the show, and I'm going to post a few until I think it's more than enough and then leave you to the rest that can be found on my website and in the Flickr set at the links formatted correctly earlier in this sentence - if you're reading this, you've gone too far.
Early checks on what Verdi actually looked like ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Director Albert Boadella with a Leonardo moment ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Toni Comas attempting to ensnare plastic spaghetti ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Borja Marino on piano ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Jesus Agelet on invisible guitar (in the show there's a real one) ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Early rehearsals were characterised by Toni doing silly things when not in scenes ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Assistant Director Pau Guix ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
A serious Luis Alvarez ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Maria Rey Joly and Jose Manuel Zapato attack Elvia Sanchez in an invisible fighter bomber ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Sanchez and Comas balance on one leg for some reason (not show related) ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Prop artist Anita with her artificial spaghetti ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Maria being Spanish ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Albert jumping off of a table, in earnest, which is very impressive for a 70 year old ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
A constructive musical review session ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Producer and keeper of more mobile phones than she has hands, Leticia Martin ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Elvia feeling like a queen in a castle ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Jesus practising unfurling a cloth ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Musical director Manuel Coves ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Lighting designer Bernat Jansa ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
Make-up artist Joel Escano before the press launch with Elvia and Maria ...
Las Semillas de El Pimiento Verdi by Owain Shaw Photo, on Flickr
That's probably enough ... especially as there's a lot more if you particularly want to see them elsewhere. If you do, or have feedback on these ones, please feel free to do so ... thanks!
Yours, the luckiest man since Ringo Starr,
Owain.
