At the Topic, we met at the Tolosa International Puppet Center that opened in 2009 with composer David Azurza, professor of vocal technique, singer of different vocal groups and director of the children's choir of Tolosa Hodei Truk. Azurza is a prolific man. He has taken part in numerous music and music performances, created the Oihu hau website to disseminate and publish coral music, and has received many awards. We've been with the composer in the courtroom essays room and among the puppet exposition dolls, feeling that the saved sounds that have left us in memory take us back and forth.

“Nice. Easy to hear. Nice,” have been the views of some of those who have heard the album, as Azurza tells us. Not in vain, the DC has been developed with mime in the study and has had luxury collaborators. However, the main objective of the project is to bring the opera to the stage, for next year, it is expected, once the subsidies and other benefits have been adjusted. Starting in the theatres of Euskal Herria and, after taking him to Castilian, to the world. “We want our Altzo giant to spread across Europe and, if possible, to make the same journey that the giant has made. In addition, the fact that the director is a Mexican will help to make him more international.” The Mexican Manuel Márquez will be the director of the scene and will be in charge of making puppets, as well as the show designed for the occasion. The scene is not fragile. On the one hand, Hodei Truk will be the crown of the children who will participate in the festival. On the other hand, puppets playing roles and all singers and interpreters singing onstage with violin, flute, accordion, percussion and under clarinet live. In addition, the letters of Izagirre and the composition and coral direction of Azurza add the voices that the mezzosoprano Maite Arruabarrena has put to Queen Maria Christina and the Great Choir of Liverpool. The baritone Jagoba Fadrique has been the main protagonist, including Anjel Alkain and Kike Amonarriz. The process has been long, as it has been long.
Azurza applied for a subsidy in the Basque Government for compositional projects, and the Pasaitarra writer had another aid for the production of theatrical texts. “Koldo sent me the advancements through fascicles and I was moving forward with them. We were adapting the play to give it a useful size and dimension, as a children’s show should not last more than an hour.” In the audition of the album, we realized that almost all choir members are girls. “It’s common. Many times the girls have to do the boys’ roles,” explains Azurza. “By the influence of society, as in dance, children don’t get so close to the choir.”

The Giant of Altzo

Miel Joakin Eleizegi (1818-1861) was the son of Ipintza Zaharra de Altzo. When she reached adulthood she began to grow due to an illness and became one of the highest men of her time, with a height of 2.42 meters. Drawn to the fame that in Tolosaldea there was a giant, and stimulated by the curiosity it aroused, several men created an association that would serve as a sample to Miel Joakin. They made him sign the contract and there Altzotarra went out into the world. He left town in town, arrived in Spain and ended up doing demonstrations in Europe. The memorable phrase he told his father in London passed from his knees to his knees: “Dad, let’s go home!” Izagirre has been able to express in his verses the suffering of the different, the drama of the giant who has enjoyed with the communion, the adventure of the journey and the honesty of Haundia. The most beloved characters are those of Izagirre. During his journey, Haundia will chat with King Louis Philippe of France, fight with the Great of England and also know the open sea around him. On the day of the presentation of the DC, the author himself commented that the giant has not only been approached from the human point of view, but from the ethnographic or informative point of view, and that this new work can serve to deepen this aspect. Azurza, however, chose the character: “From boys and girls, on an excursion with family members, we were going to see the relief of the Giant of Altzo. Then I learned that his image has been used very little in comics, stories, stories” confirms the idea of the Pasaitarra. The affection of the people towards the giant has drawn my attention: “He left but is here/ Miel Joakin ez da hil/ Miel Joakin hemen da/ hormako arrastoan/ Haundia bizi da/ Txiki guztien altzoan” says the farewell song in the people’s excited voice. In addition, the fame of Miel Joakin was not indifferent. Note, if not, in the passage of the Great Heart: “Yes!/ No, yes!/ No, yes!/ No, yes... No in the long run!/ thank you Luze Bai! Yes! Yes.”

Opera, unknown genre

From now on, the Initiatives Center of Tolosa will be responsible for channeling the work that is part of the Donostia 2016 project, as they launched to Azurza the idea of merging the puppet week that is organized in the town with the choirs competition. The Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao has hosted several opera shows for children, with opera shows that can be enjoyed in a dispersed way, but with an audience far from the operatic genre. Proof of this are the contradictions that Azurza felt at the beginning. “At first I feared that people would stand in front of an opera. I was afraid they would judge him boring. So I thought it was a story or a musical, but thinking well, what to do that for. It is an opera and prejudices are the only ones that mark the attitude towards opera.” When they did the hearing of the CD with the children of the town of Altzo, it became clear to them the delay of prejudices. Azurza explains that the children rushed to capture the melodies and the story and that they quickly got into the skin of the giant, feeling what he felt. “The children told their parents that what had happened to Miel Joakini was going to happen to them,” he said in laughter. People who have not been aware of the project Altzokohaundiaopera.blogspot.com have all the information in www.ticketea.com. We look forward to seeing the Giant of Altzo and his puppeteer friends jumping through the theatres of Euskal Herria. The show starts and it grows.