Poets of the Spanish Civil War: Machado, Lorca, Neruda

Sunday, April 23, 2017
3 pm
The White Barn, St. Helena
Tickets: $20
Link to Flyer

Join readers Michael Caldarola, Theresa Whitehill, and Paulo Ferreira as they present the work of Spanish poets Antonio Machado and Federico García Lorca, and the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. The poetry will be read in English translation, with a selection in the original Spanish.

To accompany the poetry, cellist Jeffrey McFarland-Johnson will perform “Lorca Musica per cello solo,” a fantasia composed by Geoffrey Gordon after themes from Lorca’s play, “The House of Bernarda Alba.”

The work of these three poets, considered some of the finest practitioners of Spanish literature, sparkles with tenderness and tension, outrage and vitality, whether addressing the darkness of their time or the vital mystery of the human spirit. Each employed distinctly different poetics. Lorca, whose poetics was grounded in the Flamenco form, cante jondo, or deep song, felt that much of the soul of Andalusia and Spain came from the fertile mix of Gypsy, Arab, and Spanish Culture. Machado’s work is more formally serene and pensive. Neruda’s poetic range was wide, from sonnets to Whitmanesque soliloquys to an entire collection of odes to ordinary things, a celebration of the things of everyday life, such as scissors, chairs, and kitchen utensils.

Of the three poets, only one would survive the Spanish Civil War. Lorca was assassinated in 1936, in the early months of the war, by agents of General Francisco Franco, who had the support of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and would go on to rule Spain as dictator for 36 years. Machado survived through much of the war only to die along with his mother just days after crossing the border into France in the war’s closing months of 1939. Neruda, who was working as Chilean consul in Madrid when the war broke out, chose to stay and bear witness to the atrocities and tragedies, ultimately being recalled from his post because of his open support of the left-wing loyalists. Neruda survived to carry on a long life of poetry and activism, finally succumbing to cancer in 1973, having been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

All proceeds from White Barn events benefit local and international charitable organizations. Complimentary refreshments and desserts will be served.

The White Barn
2727 Sulphur Springs Ave., St. Helena, CA 94574
http://www.thewhitebarn.org/