Jorge LAVELLI & Arturo USLAR PIETRI
Jorge Lavelli was born in Buenos Aires in 1932 and settled in Paris in the 60s. He staged for the first time and spread to France and Germany the work of Witold Gombrowicz, premiering "Marriage" (1963), "Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy" (1965) and "Operetta" (1971-89).
In 1969 he began working with musical theater and put on stage operas, including several modern authors such as Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ohana, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Lavelli directed several plays at Sala Martín Coronado Theater Saint Martin as "Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy" by Gombrowicz in 1972, "Macbeth" by Eugène Ionesco with the Théâtre National de la Colline in 1993, "Six characters in search author "by Luigi Pirandello in 1998," Mein Kampf ", a farce by George Tabori in 2000 and" King Lear "by William Shakespeare in 2006. He also presented in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon opera "The Makropoulos Case" by Leos Janacek in 1986 and "Pelléas and Melisande" by Claude Debussy in 1999.
He is the creator of a style of musical theater and the founder of the Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris, which he directed until 1996. It is considered one of the directors that has renewed the Francés theater, along with Jean-Louis Barrault and Peter Brook. Lavelli has been marked by its concern to represent a live theater, effective, attractive, fully related to contemporary issues. He directs the company Méchant Theater (Teatro Evil).
He received the Grand Prix des Arts de la Scène delivered by the City of Paris and was named Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He received four times the Konex Prize in 1981, 1989, 1989 and 2001.
Arturo Uslar Pietri (May 16, 1906 – February 26, 2001) was one of the most prominent Venezuelan figures of the twentieth century. He was a writer and an intellectual, who made important contributions as an educator, journalist, diplomat, politician and government official.
Born in Caracas, Uslar Pietri studied Political Science in the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and shortly after moved to Paris as a member of the Venezuelan diplomatic delegation. In Paris he met many Latin American writers and became a good friend of Alejo Carpentier and Miguel Ángel Asturias. One of his most celebrated books was written during his stay in France. In 1931 he published Las Lanzas Coloradas a historical novel set in revolutionary Venezuela.
When the 27-year-long dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez ended with the dictator's death in 1935, Uslar Pietri became active in the political debate, writing opinion articles in the local press.
In 1939, he became Minister of Education. He founded a political party Partido Democrático Venezolano and joined the Legislative Assembly as a Deputy in 1944. In 1945 he had been appointed Minister of the Interior, but political turmoil forced him to leave the country and move to New York in 1948. He returned to Venezuela two years later and resumed his political activities as a Senator. In 1963 he ran for the Venezuelan Presidency but was defeated by Raúl Leoni.
After this defeat, he stayed active in politics as a Senator but gradually distanced himself from the political fray. He became Director of the Caracas news daily El Nacional from 1969 to 1974, when he traveled to Paris as Venezuelan Ambassador at UNESCO. On his return in 1979, he concentrated on writing and education.