The pastoral, Joan de Nadau’s nice Christmas present
Created in 2014, the pastoral of Nadau returns to the choirs of churches and on the stages of exhibition centers. This emblematic event of the end of the year finds its original breath, after the Covid period.
La Pastorale is a tale of the Nativity closely reviewed, and much corrected, by the fertile imagination of Joan de Nadau, (Michel Maffrand for those close to him), who, from the heights of his hamlet of Luret, frees himself from the places and characters to relocate them to Comminges. A musical song of 1h30, composed of Christmas carols and stories.
An opportunity for grace
Beyond an Occitan story where the funny and the tender, the bagpipes and the accordion, the cape and the beret, the smell and the taste, rub shoulders intimately, Joan de Nadau also sees other elements in it, those who brought him to writing. “The pastoral is the occasion of grace to a few days of Christmas, to find a child’s soul, thinking of all those who lived on this little piece of stardust and who sang, in, Gascon , the hope of a new world”, he summarizes.
Reminiscences of childhood, nostalgic memories, moments like parentheses in life, the right to dream to embellish everyday life… On stage, there will be some 70 musicians, choristers and storytellers, for a performance all in Gascon Commingeois. Voices, hurdy-gurdies, bagpipes, flutes, accordions, oboes, claris and drums will intertwine. “We simply hope to make people forget the ambient gloom for a show and celebrate Christmas early. I have always loved Christmas and its magic, I have always been a good customer. As a child, I loved going to the News Galeries de Luchon to see the electric train turn. I was amazed. I just want us all to find these sensations together”. But here we have a scoop: Joan de Nadau was a child! Was he already wearing the beret…?
The Ariège performance will take place on Friday December 11, at 4 p.m., at the Saint-Girons exhibition center. Tickets are on sale at the Lo Cabeil tobacco shop, at the Cazaux charcuterie, at Coiff’beauté and at the office of Autrefois le Couserans (place Alphonse Seintein, open Mondays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.).
Ticket prices €15, children on laps accepted. A translated booklet offered.