Preludes And Choruses From Zarzuelas

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Cat No: 8555957

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Release Date: 12 January 2002

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313595723

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Preludes and Choruses from Zarzuelas

Description
Preludes and Choruses from ZarzuelasThe zarzuela, the historic Spanish musical comedy, endures, known throughout the world for its distinctive characteristics. For some years now it has been winning new recognition both in Spain and abroad. The form had humble and popular origins. Its first representatives, Hernando, Oudrid, Gaztambide or Soriano Fuertes, lacked the technical resources to create anything of value. When Rafael Hernando began to add music to little comedies and the people of Madrid saw its life reflected in light, dynamic, cheerful theatrical performance, the zarzuela triumphed. From that moment the form moved in two directions; on the one hand the zarzuela ‘grande’, openly Italian in style, and on the other the ‘género chico’, completely Spanish, with its name ‘chico’ (little) referring only to the length of the works, always in one act, as opposed to the usual three acts of the zarzuela. Gradually what we may call ‘Gran Zarzuela’ succumbed to foreign influences, so that at one of the heights of its achievement, in the nineteenth century, with its melodic contours, ambience and libretti it offered entertainment to the patrons of French comic opera, Viennese operetta and, on a larger scale, Italian opera. The smaller form, the género chico, for its part, when foreign influence gave way to national popularism, is full of what is purely Spanish, that is the use of turns of phrase, idioms and inflections of popular speech. In much the same way the musical language followed suit, adapted, perforce, to the letter and spirit of the libretti. It was, however, not only popular Spanish songs that became part of lyric theatre in Spain, but foreign melodies that were made Spanish, or even Madrilenian, such as the schottisch, the polka or the mazurka. In this way it came about that the people brought to the género chico musical and literary elements, and correspondingly the writers and composers gave back to the people these elements translated and amplified in a repertory that audiences would make their own and that would pass definitively into popular currency. That national popularism led also to sainete (farce), a theatrical form splendidly defined by Don Ramón de la Cruz as that of portraying ourselves to ourselves, depicting our types, customs, language and surroundings. While the zarzuela continued its connection with the sainete, our lyric theatre reached its zenith with an overwhelming profusion of works; when sainete ceased to be fashionable, the zarzuela reached its weakest point and had to attempt a revival through association with French and Viennese operetta, even in the twentieth century, although there would be no lack of composers, such as Sorozábal, who continued the true Spanish tradition until the 1950s. The most brilliant period of the zarzuela corresponds, in fact, to the last ten years of the nineteenth century. The process had its or
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