Lorca and Rafael de León were friends. León and Concha Piquer, too. Lorca and Piquer admired each other, but it is not known how far their relationship went. With these words, the singer Diana Navarro explains the seed of the show En tierra extraña.
It is a fiction based on some real facts about the meeting between Piquer, Lorca and León during a rehearsal, the day the Civil War broke out. Juan Carlos Rubio and José MarÃa Cámara had the idea and Rubio is the one who has written and directed this musical show, which is presented at the TÃvoli theater from May 2 to 7. (Tickets with a 15% discount on Vanguard Tickets)
Diana Navarro is Concha Piquer, Alejandro Vera is the poet Federico GarcÃa Lorca and Avelino Piedad is Rafael de León, one third of the famous Quintero, León and Quiroga. In a strange land is a co-production of the Spanish Theater of Madrid and SOM Produce.
How did the singer Diana Navarro become an actress?
I come from the couplet, which is telling a story as if it were a play in three minutes. In 2010 I began my studies as an actress and participated in a short and Santiago Segura called me to give me small interventions in three of his films. But when Juan Carlos Rubio, one of the best directors in this country, called me with the project of bringing Concha Piquer to life, everything came together in a wonderful work and I saw one of my dreams come true.
What is In a Strange Land?
It is a story of conciliation, with a very powerful message. We premiered in November 2021 in Madrid, we have toured and now we arrive in Barcelona with tremendous enthusiasm, because Barcelona has always welcomed me in all my projects and I hope that as an actress it also likes it.
Did you get to know Concha Piquer’s daughter?
A wonderful anecdote happened to me with her. When Sola came out, the song with which I made myself known, she called me Concha Márquez Piquer and she sang my song for me. I hallucinated because it was as if Dona Concha sang to me, because they had a similar voice. And that gave rise to a very beautiful friendship and she was in charge of this project, although she died three weeks before the premiere. Her daughters did come.
How do you put yourself in the shoes of a myth like Concha Piquer?
It is still said that you travel more than Piquer’s trunks. For the paper, I have documented a lot. Her granddaughter, Concha Romero, told me about the perfume she used, the lipstick, how she wore her nails, how endearing she was and that she liked to spend a lot of time with her family. Perhaps the general public is unaware of all that most intimate part of her, because she was famous for having a lot of character, even a little arrogance.
How did you deal with it?
She was a woman with immense energy. You have to keep in mind that she started out as a girl. At the age of 14, she goes to Broadway as a seamstress with her mother, but what she wants is to sing at all costs. She is heard by the Shubert brothers and they tell the teacher Penella that the girl has to enter the show. She adapts The flower’s boy to Spanish (El florero) and receives tremendous applause. She learns the American discipline and succeeds with illuminated signs for five years, she appears in the first talkies…
And at the age of 19 he returned to Spain.
She imports everything that was mainstream at the time, she becomes a businesswoman and popularizes what we know today as the couplet. With that professional part and that human part, I build the character of an artist with whom I am totally in love.
What episode is shown in the play In a Strange Land?
We don’t know if there was a friendship with Lorca, but in the play it is stated that she wants a song by him… and other things that we will not reveal. The work has a conciliation message: that each one thinks as he wants, but that we do not stop looking into each other’s eyes. Let’s agree that we disagree, because people are above ideologies and flags.
What songs does he play?
Well, Green Eyes, for which she paid the censorship fine to be able to say: “Leaning on the doorway of the mancebÃa”, because it was very provocative. Don’t look at the river, Tatuaje, a medley of Broadway songs that the public likes a lot, and I can tell you that in the end there is a couplet based on a poem by Lorca that we have created, Amor oscuro.
Do you sing like Diana Navarro imitates Concha Piquer?
Amor oscuro is the most Diana Navarro song that I interpret, because in the others I try to be like Concha Piquer, without imitating her because she is inimitable.
But you sing the copla with your own style.
I don’t do it in the show, but since there are people who want me to sing those songs with my style, in September I release a record and start a tour called De la Piquer a la Navarro.
