DOÑA FRANCISQUITA

Lyric comedy in three acts and four scenes by A. Vives with a libretto by F. Romero and G. Fernández Shaw, inspired by the play La discreta enamorada written by Lope de Vega
Premiered at the Teatro Apolo of Madrid on the 17th October, 1923

Musical production Teatro Cervantes de Málaga
Stage production Teatro Villamarta de Jerez de la Frontera

Francisquita María José Moreno
Aurora Mónica Redondo
Doña Francisca Milagros Martín
Irene Lucía Millán
Fernando Ismael Jordi
Don Matías Santos Ariño
Cardona Jesús Álvarez
Lorenzo Pérez Antonio Torres

Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga
Coro de Ópera de Málaga
Orquesta de Pulso y Púa de Málaga

Choreography Javier Latorre
Stage director Francisco López
Choir director María del Mar Muñoz Varo
Conductor José María Moreno

2.15 h (w/intermission)
photo ©Daniel Pérez / Teatro Cervantes

Hand programme (ESP)

According to the subtitle of Vives' most famous zarzuela and one of the repertoire’s most emblematic, traditional and popular, Doña Francisquita is a a musical comedy. The composer’s reference in the title is to the dramatic aspect, which he owes to La discreta enamorada by Lope de Vega, a play of the grand era of Spanish theater. This orientation, which follows the classical model (with a temporal distance of three centuries), is neither casual nor an exception for the composer, who was passionate about literature (Don Lucas del Cigarral is based on a comedy by Francisco de Rojas and La villana, on one by Lope). The particular grace of Doña Francisquita consists of exposing Lope de Vega’s classic intrigues with different tensions of later historical moments. Three epochs are mixed in this zarzuela, concentrated in the unchanging scenario of Madrid, mutually expanding, clarifying and enriching each other: the absolutist monarchy of the original text, the romantic-bourgeois era, eager to open up, to which Vives' librettists transfer the action, and the authors’ own era and that of their contemporary audience a few years after the First World War, when Spanish bourgeoisie languished in the midst of undefined goals. The contrast is further intensified by the musical description of nuanced harmonies and tonalities, and is personified in the two main protagonists, namely Francisquita and the diverse people of Madrid.

Opera and Recitals XXXV Opera Season