Song of Love and War by Martínez Valls, Aπό (2022/2022), αγωγός Salvador Brotons, L'Auditori, Barcelona, Spain

Who has never heard the sardana En el Vallespir sung by Francina and the choir of girls in Cançó d'amor i de guerra , some verses that have been performed by everyone from Montserrat Caballé to Salomé? Or Pirineu, tes blanques come , Eloi's grave and heartbreaking aria and the soldiers' choir that has become popular over a century? The zarzuela by Martínez Valls, with a libretto by Lluís Capdevila and Víctor Mora, has become an emblematic work and some of its fragments have crossed theatrical frontiers and have become emblems of Catalan music. The libretto is set in Roussillon in 1793, and revolutionary France sets the love story between Eloi, a blacksmith, and Francina, the master's daughter. The score was initially to be entitled Els soldats de l'ideal , but in 1926, in the midst of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, it was adapted a bit until it became the version we all know, which premiered at the Victòria Theater in Barcelona on April 26 of that year.