EARLY MUSIC MORELLA COMES TO A DRAMATIC CLOSE
MARA ARANDA INTERVIEWED FOLLOWING THE PERFORMANCE AT THE TEATRO PRINCIPAL IN ZAMORA, SPAIN
MARA ARANDA, MÚSICA DE JUEUS EN ALQUERIA DE MOROS, EL PROPER 10 DE JULIOL.
Part del call, la paraula valenciana per a barri jueu, estava sobre l’antic circ romà, el cementiri estava a l’actual plaça Els Pinazo; la sinagoga, centre religiós i administratiu, aproximadament, entre els carrers del Mar i de la Pau i al costat d’ella es trobava la bet-Midrash, la “Casa d’estudi” o ensenyament per on potser van passar tres valencians, jueus, il·lustres entre els segles XV i XVI, l’Edat d’Or del judaisme valencià: el gran humanista Luis Vives (1492-1540) que va estudiar en la recentment fundada Universitat de València cap a 1508 i en la de Paris per després traslladar-se a Flandes. Tant el seu pare com la seva àvia van caure en mans de la Inquisició de València; Lluis Alcanyis nascut a Xàtiva, catedràtic examinador de metges i ocupant la “cadira de medicina i cirurgia”, condemnat junt la seva dona a la foguera a València i, finalment, Luis de Santángel, nascut a València en 1492 i vinculat a la corona d’Aragó, encarregant-se del patrimoni real, les finances i els préstecs a interès a la monarquia. En 1497 va obtenir dels monarques un estatut de neteja de sang, privilegi que el protegia davant el sant Ofici.
MARA ARANDA: JEWISH SONG IN THE HOME OF THE MOORS, VALENCIA 10th JULY
Part of the ancient ‘Call’, the Catalan word for Jewish Quarter, was to be found in the vicinity of the old Roman amphitheatre in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia. The Jewish cemetary was in what is today Plaza de los Pinazo; the synogogue -the religious and administrative centre of the community- between today’s Calle del Mar and Calle de la Paz; and just beside the synagogue, the ‘bet-Midrash’, the ‘house of study’. It was in this house of study that perhaps three of Valencia’s most well-known Golden Age Jews received their instruction in the 15th and 16th Centuries: the great humanist Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) who went on to study at the newly founded University of Valencia around 1508 and later in Paris -his father and his grandmother were to become victims of the infamous Spanish Inquisition-; Lluis Alcanyis, a native of the city of Xàtiva, Professor of Medicine and another famous victim of the Inquisition’s bonfires; and Luis de Santángel, born in Valencia in 1492 with links to the Crown of Aragon, and who later become custodian of the royal estate and financial affairs in the city. His high status was to protect him from the Holy Inquisitors.