The original title for this article from El País is “The Prado Museum opens its doors to Residente and Silvia Pérez Cruz with ‘Las Meninas’ transformed into a musical stage.” Residente is Puerto Rican singer-songwriter René Pérez Joglar (previously known for the group Calle 13.) El País explained, “Puerto Rican singer records a version of his recent song ‘313’ in the halls of the Madrid museum [El Prado], between paintings by Velázquez and Rubens.” In Spain, Residente will offer concerts on September 14, at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, and on September 15, at the Wizink Center in Madrid. [Also see the video of “313” below.]

If the Louvre opened its doors to Beyoncé and Jay Z in 2018 to stage the Apeshit video, the Prado Museum was no different. On March 15, the Puerto Rican singer and composer Residente, René Pérez, joined singer Silvia Pérez Cruz and the violinist Noemí Gasparini to pay tribute in front of Las meninas by Diego Velázquez and release a new version, recorded live — which has been published this Monday—of one of her latest hits, 313, in whose original video clip Penélope Cruz also appeared and which has accumulated seven million views on YouTube.

The video begins with Residente among four dancers, who serve as a vocal choir, in the iconic Sala 12, after which their verses begin, taking advantage of the silence without visitors in one of the busiest places in Madrid. The song, a tribute to their friend Valentina Gasparini who died in 2022, is then moved to the Central Gallery, where Silvia Pérez Cruz continues with her part alongside Rubens’ The Adoration of the Magi. The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, shared the five-minute video on X, highlighting that “a scenario like this is another level.” The museum itself has described it as “a hymn to the beauty of the ephemeral in the face of the immortality of art.”

This “intimate” version of the song, as the Prado Museum describes it, is a new initiative by the Madrid art gallery in its strategy to boost its visibility on social networks through other arts and collaborations, as they did when launching in February the video of El poder del arte [The Power of Art] by Robe Iniesta, accompanied by paintings from the museum that related to what he said in the song; or Eduardo Guerrero’s recent flamenco in front of Bosch’s Garden of Delights. The fact that one of the musicians with the most Latin Grammys now participates (21 Grammys with Calle 13 and five more as a solo act) is a step further in this direction. Residente, the institution reminds us, will offer concerts in Spain on September 14 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona and a day later, on September 15, at the Wizink Center in Madrid.

Watch 313 here:

Translated by Ivette Romero. For full, original article, see https://elpais.com/cultura/2024-04-08/el-museo-del-prado-abre-las-puertas-a-residente-y-silvia-perez-cruz-con-las-meninas-convertidas-en-escenario-musical.html