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Eight Moons for Wallada
October 13, 20207:30 p.m.
CORDOBA
Casa Árabe’s central courtyard (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9).
7:30 p.m.
Prior registration required. Capacity is greatly limited due to the health situation.
The decision to hold this activity in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your patience.
Casa Árabe presents this show of music, poetry and poetic prose about Wallada by Matilde Cabello and Máximo Ortega, accompanied by the music of Eles Bellido (violin) and Jesús Miquel Villalba (French horn). The activity is being held as part of the series “Amira al-Ándalus”.
“The woman’s spirit is devoid of any idea other than that of sexual union... nor are women concerned with anything else, nor for anything else were they created,” claimed Ibn Hazm.
That is the image which was conveyed of women in Al-Andalus by both Christian culture, and Romantic painters and travelers.
That may have been the fate of Wallada bint al-Mustakfi. However, her lack of submission to society’s rules, the desire to choose her own path freely and an ill-fated love affair with poet Ibn Zaydun changed her destiny.
Under that silenced passion, beautiful poems of love and heartbreak were born, exchanged in the form of missives, until the poet’s infidelity led to the scorn, wrath and revenge of the Umayyad woman. Her scathing satire, coupled with the poignant poems by Ibn Zaydun, his repentance, begging and later banishment, overshadowed the poetess behind the name of Ibn Zaydun, thus creating a popular legend bent on treating the memory of Wallada the Umayyad lightly.
On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the first edition of Wallada, the Last Moon (Almuzara, 2005), Matilde Cabello and Máximo Ortega, accompanied by Eles Bellido and Jesús Miquel Villalba, provide us with an overview of the Eight Moons in the life of this exceptional woman, from the new moon to the waning, and including the full moon of a love that could also grow as bitter and twisted as the trunk of a myrtle tree.
The show will be held on Tuesday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Casa Árabe’s main courtyard in Cordoba. It will be broadcast live on our Youtube and Facebook Live channels. In order to attend, you must sign up in advanceusing this form. Limited attendance. Mask use required. The decision to hold this activity in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your patience.
That is the image which was conveyed of women in Al-Andalus by both Christian culture, and Romantic painters and travelers.
That may have been the fate of Wallada bint al-Mustakfi. However, her lack of submission to society’s rules, the desire to choose her own path freely and an ill-fated love affair with poet Ibn Zaydun changed her destiny.
Under that silenced passion, beautiful poems of love and heartbreak were born, exchanged in the form of missives, until the poet’s infidelity led to the scorn, wrath and revenge of the Umayyad woman. Her scathing satire, coupled with the poignant poems by Ibn Zaydun, his repentance, begging and later banishment, overshadowed the poetess behind the name of Ibn Zaydun, thus creating a popular legend bent on treating the memory of Wallada the Umayyad lightly.
Ten centuries later, Wallada, the Last Moon has brought back the figure of the Umayyad woman, as if it were a poem, allowing us to visit the splendor of Al-Andalus while on the verge of disappearing, not sparing any details in the journey to that world. Half historical and half fantasy, this tale changed the image of the princess, inspiring many other authors who have appropriated the history and imaginary recreated by Matilde Cabello.
The show will be held on Tuesday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Casa Árabe’s main courtyard in Cordoba. It will be broadcast live on our Youtube and Facebook Live channels. In order to attend, you must sign up in advanceusing this form. Limited attendance. Mask use required. The decision to hold this activity in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your patience.
Matilde Cabello
Poet, novelist and investigative reporter. Between El fruto de Aljamía (published by the Provincial Government of Cordoba, 1990) and Juego desigual (Renacimiento, 2015), she has had a dozen poem books published, some acknowledged with domestic and foreign awards, and a similar number of minor works. She also wrote the novels Wallada, the Last Moon (Ahora 2001; Almuzara 2005; Castelvecchi, Roma, 2012), El Libro de las Parturientas (El Páramo 2008; second edition, 2011), El pozo del manzano (Buendía, 2014) and Gentes de Luz: 100 biografías cordobesas (Utopía, 2016). She has authored at least tourist and cultural guides about the history, culture and festivals of Cordoba. She has been a reporter and scriptwriter for audiovisuals and written media in Cordoba and occasionally in the Maghreb, including Diario Córdoba, El Día de Córdoba, TVM and Vive7 (1989-2018). She has prepared talks and presentations about Women in Al-Andalus, Woman and coplas, Medina Azahara, the city of poets, women in the second half of the twentieth century, The waters of Villaharta and Cervelló, in addition to others, out of the American cities of Albany and Erie, as well as Cuba, the Maghreb and Spain. A screenwriter and narrator of shows such as Don Quixote in Cordoba, Mátame de Pena, Dime que me quieres and Cinco mujeres años 20 (from 2018 to the present), she has also had approximately one thousand reports published in the written press and audiovisual media, and she created the documentaries Pilar Sarasola, una mujer contra corriente (2012) and Elio Benhager, la fuerza de una profecía (2017). Her writings have also been fully or partially translated into French, English, Arabic and Italian.
Máximo Ortega (stage direction and poetry recital)
Born in Fernán Núñez (Córdoba), Ortega has a degree in Dramatic Art, specializing in Acting, and a degree in Psychology. His constant training was completed in disciplines such as dance, theater and gesture through courses with teachers of international prestige in Commedia dell ́Arte, cabaret and clown performance, including Antonio Fava, Carlo Colombaioni and Jango Edwards. He performs his professional activities in every field within the performing arts, as an actor, trainer, writer, director and theater critic. Since 2002, he has collaborated with different groups to create a number of shows that integrate music in its most varied styles with theater: “Conócelojazz” (jazz), “Hansel and Gretel” (opera), “Música para tus sentidos” (classic), “El Gran Ástor” (tango), “Ennio y Figura,” “Cuando suena Chaplin” (movie soundtrack), “Yo soy Miguel de Molina” (copla), “Nostalgia de Flamenco de la Judería” (flamenco), “las D’Aida” (Cuban music) and “Enamorados de la moda juvenil” (pop) are some of the productions in which he has taken part, mostly by writing and directing.
Eles Bellido
Born in Córdoba, Eles Bellido began her musical studies in the specialties of guitar, violin and piano. After finishing her basic studies of these instruments with the highest distinction, she continued her musical career at the “Rafael Orozco” Conservatory of Music in Cordoba, where she earned an Advanced Teaching degree in the speciality of Violin. Her passion for string instruments led her to obtain a professional degree in Viola at the Professional Conservatory of Music of Córdoba “Músico Ziryab,” a speciality of which she became a teacher by competitive examination in 2010. A disciple of such renowned violinists as Luis Baez Cervantes from Cordoba, Cuba’s Ángel Guzmán, Armenia’s Yuri Petrossian and Russian violist Evgeny Ozhogin, she received master classes with such virtuosos as Serguei Teslia, Santiago de la Riva, Danuta Glowacka, Olga Vilkomirskaya, Santiago Juan, Sheila Nelson, Nestor Eidler, Josep Lluis Puig Bartolomé, Agustín León Ara and Enrique Santiago, among others. A professor in the subject of Viola at the “Maestro Chicano Muñoz” Professional Conservatory of Music in Lucena (Cordoba), Eles Bellido has collaborated with professional orchestras all over Spain and has promoted different classical and contemporary music groups. In addition to taking part in numerous musical productions of different types, she has participated in the recording of albums and videos by performers like La Negra, Sacramento, Remedios Amaya (album nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards in 2016) and Medina Azahara, as well as many others.
Jesus Miquel
Born in Vilamarxant (Valencia), Miquel graduated in 1998 from the Joaquín Rodrigo Superior Conservatory of Music in Valencia, earning the highest grades. After furthering his studies with Antonio Benlloch, he completed a two-year graduate course with a scholarship from the Albéniz Foundation, at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, with professors Radovan Vlatkovic and Rodolfo Epelde. He has taken courses with outstanding trumpet players from Europe and America, including Bill Sanders, Eli Epstein, Ignacio García, Raúl Díaz, Bruno Schenider, Richard Watkins, Juan Manuel Gómez, Froydis Ree Wekre and Barry Tuckwell. In 2002, he joined the Corps of Music and Performing Arts Teachers of the Autonomous Region of Madrid and, as of that same year, he became a member of the Cordoba Orchestra, a position which he still holds to this day. He has collaborated with several orchestras, such as the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, the Castilla y León Orchestra, the Castellón Symphony Orchestra and the OG Music Festival Orchestra. He has played under the direction of esteemed conductors of the stature of Jordi Savall, Salvador Mas, Enrique García Asensio, Jesús López Cobos, Manuel Hernández Silva, Péter Csaba, Lorenzo Ramos, Karl Anton Rickenbacher and Maxim Shostakovich, in addition to others. In chamber music, he has former part of the Granados Octet and the Hindemitz Trio, which he has given concerts with throughout Spain. In Cordoba, he has formed part of the wind quintet Alviento, and the Cordoba Orchestra’s Brass Trio, groups with which he appears regularly on the city’s stages. As a soloist, his most notable appearances include the 2006 performance of the Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds by Mozart, conducted by Jean Bernard Pommier, and in 2015 the Horn Concerto for Orchestra No. 3: K 447, conducted by Lorenzo Ramos, on both occasions accompanied by the Cordoba Orchestra.
Poet, novelist and investigative reporter. Between El fruto de Aljamía (published by the Provincial Government of Cordoba, 1990) and Juego desigual (Renacimiento, 2015), she has had a dozen poem books published, some acknowledged with domestic and foreign awards, and a similar number of minor works. She also wrote the novels Wallada, the Last Moon (Ahora 2001; Almuzara 2005; Castelvecchi, Roma, 2012), El Libro de las Parturientas (El Páramo 2008; second edition, 2011), El pozo del manzano (Buendía, 2014) and Gentes de Luz: 100 biografías cordobesas (Utopía, 2016). She has authored at least tourist and cultural guides about the history, culture and festivals of Cordoba. She has been a reporter and scriptwriter for audiovisuals and written media in Cordoba and occasionally in the Maghreb, including Diario Córdoba, El Día de Córdoba, TVM and Vive7 (1989-2018). She has prepared talks and presentations about Women in Al-Andalus, Woman and coplas, Medina Azahara, the city of poets, women in the second half of the twentieth century, The waters of Villaharta and Cervelló, in addition to others, out of the American cities of Albany and Erie, as well as Cuba, the Maghreb and Spain. A screenwriter and narrator of shows such as Don Quixote in Cordoba, Mátame de Pena, Dime que me quieres and Cinco mujeres años 20 (from 2018 to the present), she has also had approximately one thousand reports published in the written press and audiovisual media, and she created the documentaries Pilar Sarasola, una mujer contra corriente (2012) and Elio Benhager, la fuerza de una profecía (2017). Her writings have also been fully or partially translated into French, English, Arabic and Italian.
Máximo Ortega (stage direction and poetry recital)
Born in Fernán Núñez (Córdoba), Ortega has a degree in Dramatic Art, specializing in Acting, and a degree in Psychology. His constant training was completed in disciplines such as dance, theater and gesture through courses with teachers of international prestige in Commedia dell ́Arte, cabaret and clown performance, including Antonio Fava, Carlo Colombaioni and Jango Edwards. He performs his professional activities in every field within the performing arts, as an actor, trainer, writer, director and theater critic. Since 2002, he has collaborated with different groups to create a number of shows that integrate music in its most varied styles with theater: “Conócelojazz” (jazz), “Hansel and Gretel” (opera), “Música para tus sentidos” (classic), “El Gran Ástor” (tango), “Ennio y Figura,” “Cuando suena Chaplin” (movie soundtrack), “Yo soy Miguel de Molina” (copla), “Nostalgia de Flamenco de la Judería” (flamenco), “las D’Aida” (Cuban music) and “Enamorados de la moda juvenil” (pop) are some of the productions in which he has taken part, mostly by writing and directing.
Eles Bellido
Born in Córdoba, Eles Bellido began her musical studies in the specialties of guitar, violin and piano. After finishing her basic studies of these instruments with the highest distinction, she continued her musical career at the “Rafael Orozco” Conservatory of Music in Cordoba, where she earned an Advanced Teaching degree in the speciality of Violin. Her passion for string instruments led her to obtain a professional degree in Viola at the Professional Conservatory of Music of Córdoba “Músico Ziryab,” a speciality of which she became a teacher by competitive examination in 2010. A disciple of such renowned violinists as Luis Baez Cervantes from Cordoba, Cuba’s Ángel Guzmán, Armenia’s Yuri Petrossian and Russian violist Evgeny Ozhogin, she received master classes with such virtuosos as Serguei Teslia, Santiago de la Riva, Danuta Glowacka, Olga Vilkomirskaya, Santiago Juan, Sheila Nelson, Nestor Eidler, Josep Lluis Puig Bartolomé, Agustín León Ara and Enrique Santiago, among others. A professor in the subject of Viola at the “Maestro Chicano Muñoz” Professional Conservatory of Music in Lucena (Cordoba), Eles Bellido has collaborated with professional orchestras all over Spain and has promoted different classical and contemporary music groups. In addition to taking part in numerous musical productions of different types, she has participated in the recording of albums and videos by performers like La Negra, Sacramento, Remedios Amaya (album nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards in 2016) and Medina Azahara, as well as many others.
Jesus Miquel
Born in Vilamarxant (Valencia), Miquel graduated in 1998 from the Joaquín Rodrigo Superior Conservatory of Music in Valencia, earning the highest grades. After furthering his studies with Antonio Benlloch, he completed a two-year graduate course with a scholarship from the Albéniz Foundation, at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, with professors Radovan Vlatkovic and Rodolfo Epelde. He has taken courses with outstanding trumpet players from Europe and America, including Bill Sanders, Eli Epstein, Ignacio García, Raúl Díaz, Bruno Schenider, Richard Watkins, Juan Manuel Gómez, Froydis Ree Wekre and Barry Tuckwell. In 2002, he joined the Corps of Music and Performing Arts Teachers of the Autonomous Region of Madrid and, as of that same year, he became a member of the Cordoba Orchestra, a position which he still holds to this day. He has collaborated with several orchestras, such as the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, the Castilla y León Orchestra, the Castellón Symphony Orchestra and the OG Music Festival Orchestra. He has played under the direction of esteemed conductors of the stature of Jordi Savall, Salvador Mas, Enrique García Asensio, Jesús López Cobos, Manuel Hernández Silva, Péter Csaba, Lorenzo Ramos, Karl Anton Rickenbacher and Maxim Shostakovich, in addition to others. In chamber music, he has former part of the Granados Octet and the Hindemitz Trio, which he has given concerts with throughout Spain. In Cordoba, he has formed part of the wind quintet Alviento, and the Cordoba Orchestra’s Brass Trio, groups with which he appears regularly on the city’s stages. As a soloist, his most notable appearances include the 2006 performance of the Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds by Mozart, conducted by Jean Bernard Pommier, and in 2015 the Horn Concerto for Orchestra No. 3: K 447, conducted by Lorenzo Ramos, on both occasions accompanied by the Cordoba Orchestra.