Love is like one of those vaults you used to jump in gym class (if you could). That vault is desire, and it is the enemy: ride it, and it may kill you. This is narrated by the angel sitting on one of those gym contraptions who stars in "a cheesy declaration of love set to music, from a queer perspective," with live sound from César Barco Manrique. It will show you the vulnerability that love places us in, the beauty of fragility, and it will raise questions about those concepts of masculinity that govern our behaviour and the vulnerabilities we conceal. All while singing about outmoded love, infinite love, the politically incorrect, and self-sacrifice. The eighties music of Mecano, present in many moments, even gives the title to this production, alluding to the "bar of gold" mentioned in a phrase of the song La fuerza del destino: "one night in the bar of gold I decided to attack." Pretentiously cheesy, with affected movements, childish and ridiculous, almost stupid, but as sacred as a body that pours out love deserves to be, our angel stars in a musical or opera of our time that asks and discovers on stage what love sounds like and how it can be sung.
Alberto Cortés is a Malaga-based director and playwright with a degree in Art History who founded the company Bajotierra in 2008 and has been involved in projects such as the Malaga alternative stage festival El Quirófano and the Escena Bruta programme. In 2012 he worked with the Belgian dance-theatre company Peeping Tom and in 2013, embarked on his solo career. He develops his activity by training and interacting with various national and international creators and companies. He has staged productions such as Viva la guerra, Historia de Mikoto, Yo antes era mejor, Hollywood, Masacre en Nebraska and El Ardor. In 2022 he published Los montes son tuyos (which brings together El Ardor, from 2021, and One night at the golden bar, from 2022) with the publishing house Contintametienes. In Catalonia, we have seen him on several occasions participating in the programme of the Sâlmon< Festival d'Arts Vives contemporànies and in the Terrassa Noves Tendències (TNT) festival.
With the collaboration of the Teatro Calderón de Valladolid, the Junta de Andalucía (Residencias Ágora), Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Conde Duque (Madrid), El Graner centre for dance and live arts.
Concept, dramaturgy, texts and performance: Alberto Cortés. Music and sound space: César Barco Manrique. Lighting: Benito Jiménez. Sound: Pablo Contreras. Costume design: Gloria Trenado. Movement assistance: María Cabeza de Vaca. Stage assistance: Víctor Colmenero. Photography and video: Clementina Gades, La Cura. Acknowledgements: La Poderosa, Labo XL, Rebeca, Iver, Claudia, Mariquiña, Esther y Peru Isasi.
