BERETERRETX

The association ‘Lilia’ will stage the performance Bereterretx, a creation by Pier Paul Berzaitz. Drawing on the old 15th-century songbook, and through dance and song, two dance groups will relive the tragedy (OINKARI, from Gipuzkoa, and Berritz’Hats, from Zuberoa), together with around ten singers, including Jean-Michel Bedaxagar, Michel Arotce and Magali Zubillaga. Philippe de Ezcurra has completed and harmonised the music. It is striking how this songbook has survived the centuries through oral transmission. It is thought to date back to around 1870, to the fifteen verses written down in Chants populaires du Pays basque by J. D. J. Sallaberry. What power emanates from its lines! Bereterretxen kantorea is truly more than a song; it is a great poem, a complete story. The work of an unknown bertsolari, it tells how the Count of Lerin, then lord of the castle of Maule, put an end to the life of the young Bereterretx Larrain by the light of the Ezpeldoi house. Why? It is difficult to say for certain: politics, jealousy…

What is certain is that the people of Zuberoa were deeply marked by that crime. Line by line, verse by verse, we will relive the tragedy with intense emotion. If tradition has preserved this song, even as some details have been lost over time, it is because something profound and terrible happened in those days, and it is clear that the text is extraordinary. In fact, there are two pastorales devoted to this subject. In this performance, we rekindle the flame of that event, which, though tragic, is universal and profoundly human.