The Fall of the Marcelina

La caída del Marcelina de Ciriza / The Fall of the Marcelina de Ciriza A staged concert for clarinet and zurupanga ensemble

Project: Sebastián Flores, Martín Virgili

Playa Constitución / Museo MAR, Mar del Plata — 2021

Selected by the Fondo Nacional de las Artes.

Download the premiere program (PDF)

Presentation

In 1991, the Marcelina de Ciriza sailed 15 kilometers from the port of Mar del Plata to the beaches of Constitución with no crew aboard. Local legend holds that only a dog and ghosts were on board. Thirty years after the tragedy — and the harrowing storm that seems to have set the ship’s dark departure in motion — the story is still alive in the imagination of Mar del Plata, carrying a sonic and narrative presence that gives rise to this staged concert for clarinet and zurupanga ensemble.

At a macro-formal level, the concert unfolds across two areas: one inside the hall, one outside. The first takes place on the beach framing the Museo MAR, the critical point where the Marcelina de Ciriza lies: from there, the soloist and the composer will paddle out on a surfboard, retracing the ship’s final position. The second, inside the hall with an ensemble formed specially for the premiere, rebuilds — sonically and musically — the epic of that sinking.

Musical movements

The rising of the wind · Theme of the Marcelina · The perfect storm · Sailing among shadows · The secret report · Homage to Rachmaninoff · Running aground · The waves · Dialogue between a dog and a whale · The swallowed cathedral.

Credits

Music: Martín Virgili
Solo clarinet: Sebastián Flores
B♭ clarinet: Luciana Savoy
Percussion: Juan Carlos Carotenuto
Choreography: Sofía Fortunato
Staging: Candela Chirino
Lighting: Vanesa Gumiero
Ensemble: Sofía Fortunato, Agustina Suero, Carolina D’Alessandro, Eugenia De la Cruz Arbizu, Ignacio Pomponio, María Inés Flores García, Sol Alonso