El Barberillo de Lavapiés by Barbieri, vr. 12 apr 2019, Van (2019/2019), Geregisseerd door Alfredo Sanzol,, Dirigent José Miguel Pérez-Sierra, Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid, Spanje

One of the most entertaining and cheerful works in the lyric repertoire is back at the House of the Zarzuela. El barberillo de Lavapiés has kept its place on our stages right up until now as an emblem of Spanish lyric works. In fact professor of musicology Emilio Casares reminds us that “to speak of El barberillo is to speak of the acme of our musical history, the paradigm of what has been considered to be Hispanic lyric theatre and madrileñismo”, of “Madridness”. The authors mix a popular plot, dealing with Lamparilla and Paloma’s love affair, with the sentimental dalliances of two aristocrats, the little Marchioness Estrella and Don Luis; and all of this with a political backdrop: the forced transition of government from Grimaldi to Floridablanca. This thematic model had already been used by Barbieri in Jugar con fuego, Los diamantes de la corona and Pan y toros, but with Larra’s text —written in verse— it fills up with adventures, intrigues, politics, love and humour, and it works so well that it could have been written in the present day. Characters and stories will accelerate the pitch of our lives, of our emotions, in such a way that they will make the ideas slip through our minds with such lively ease, that there’s no doubt we will leave the theatre brimming over with cheer, drenched in this “old-time” intrigue which is as current today as it was on the first day it was performed. And —as Sanzol writes— let’s mix together “health, wealth and acorns, humour, beauty and freedom” and enjoy this fiesta that La Zarzuela is putting on 145 years after its première…