Sagunto's culture department opens autumn season with art, theatre and music
Sagunto's Culture Department (Concejalía de Cultura) opens its autumn programme in September, with three art exhibitions, one concert and two classical theatre events across different municipal venues.
Before the full calendar through December is officially announced, Sagunto City Council's Culture Department has revealed the start of its autumn season, mixing visual art, music and classical theatre across four venues: the Mario Monreal Cultural Centre, the Casa Municipal de Cultura (Municipal House of Culture), the Antiguo Sanatorio Civic Centre -whose name literally means "former sanatorium"- and the Casa dels Berenguer. These four spaces will host most of September's cultural activity, before the bulk of the programme unfolds between October, November and December, according to the council. With this early notice, the council aims to let residents plan their September cultural agenda ahead of time, without waiting for the rest of the autumn calendar to be confirmed.
On the exhibitions side, the Mario Monreal Cultural Centre hosts Paisajes ("Landscapes"), by painter Francisco Villalba, from 1 to 26 September. From 2 to 25 September, the Casa Municipal de Cultura displays the entries submitted to a photography contest marking the 75th anniversary of Fertiberia BM Puerto Sagunto, a local handball club. Once that double bill ends, the Mario Monreal Cultural Centre will host, from 29 September to 31 October, Pinturas exóticas para corazones noctámbulos ("Exotic paintings for night-owl hearts"), the new exhibition by artist Darío Oltra. This means the Mario Monreal Cultural Centre will keep its rooms open almost without a break through September and October, since Villalba's show closes on the 26th and Oltra's opens just three days later, on the 29th. Anyone wanting to visit any of the three exhibitions can do so during each venue's usual opening hours, the Culture Department says.
On the music side, singer Rafa del Calli -known in Spanish as a cantaor, the traditional term for a flamenco vocalist- will take the stage at the Antiguo Sanatorio Civic Centre on 11 September, from 22:30. Del Calli comes to Sagunto as the winner of the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas, a flamenco singing competition held in La Unión (Región de Murcia, southeastern Spain) since 1961, whose main prize, the Lámpara Minera ("Miner's Lamp"), is one of the most prestigious awards in flamenco music in Spain. His win, achieved in July at the Música al Port festival, is what brings him to perform in Sagunto now.
The collaboration with the Museo de la Escena Grecolatina (Museum of Greco-Latin Theatre) adds two events at the Casa dels Berenguer. José Luis Navarro and Miguel Navarro will lead the round-table talk Aspectos modernos de la comedia grecolatina ("Modern aspects of Greco-Latin comedy") on Friday 4 September, from 19:30. The next day, Saturday 5 September and from 22:00, the stage will host La asamblea de mujeres ("The Assembly of Women"), the comedy written by Aristophanes in 392 BC, in which a group of women led by Praxagora disguise themselves as men to take control of the Athenian assembly and prove they can govern better than men.
This autumn preview comes just days after the Roman Theatre closed its summer Sagunt a Escena season -the theatre and music series that fills the archaeological site every summer- with a concert by flamenco singer Estrella Morente on 20 August. The near-immediate handover between the two programmes shows that Sagunto's cultural calendar barely pauses between seasons, with theatre and music events continuing across different municipal venues.
Councillor for Culture Ana María Quesada has praised the quality of September's cultural offer and encouraged residents not to miss any of these events. The council notes that this is only the start: the full programme, with new art, music and performing-arts proposals running through December, will be officially announced in the coming weeks, and residents are encouraged to follow the council's official channels for updates once the complete calendar is confirmed.
According to information published by Sagunto City Council, with additional background from Wikipedia on the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas and Aristophanes' comedy La asamblea de mujeres.