Teatros Españoles

Notes on the Program

by Pablo Zinger

What is Zarzuela?  Spanish light opera, right?  Wrong!

Zarzuelas come in all colors and shapes; from short diversions to 3-hour-long historical extravaganzas; from works written for actors who could barely sing to operatic tour-de-forces; from risqué comedies to tear-jerking dramas; from Spanish peasant locales to Hungarian and even Asian adventures; from works written by three different composers and orchestrated by still another or two, to masterworks of skill and melodic invention; from flamenco music to Viennese Waltzes and Fox-trots.

Zarzuela, by definition, is a form of Spanish (and by extension, Latin American) music-theater, which combines musical numbers with spoken dialogue.  This disqualifies from the genre such works as Penella's El gato montés, or De Falla's La vida breve.

Any attempt to define or characterize zarzuela more narrowly will be thwarted by the fact that local Spanish color, the presence of dance numbers or a light comedic touch, are not essential, and that numerous examples can be found among even the most popular zarzuelas that do not follow such rules.

The name zarzuela dates back to the palatial entertainments presented at the palace of La Zarzuela, in the outskirts of Madrid, where King Philip IV (mid 1600's) would present short pieces with music and singing.  The word zarzuela is a diminutive for zarza, or brambles, which abounded therein.  These entertainments, which originally centered around baroque reworkings of Greek and Roman mythology, soon started featuring local stories and dance and song forms.

For the complete text of these program notes, please e-mail us at:  info@nyfos.org.