El cantar del arriero (Díaz Giles)

Dolores Cava, Manuel Ausensi, Julita Bermejo, Gerardo Monreal. Coro Cantores de Madrid, Orquesta Sinfónica, c. Benito Lauret
Novoson Z-564

Ángeles Ottein, Marcos Redondo, Augusto Gonzalo. Orquesta, c. Antonio Capdevila
Blue Moon BMCD 7513 [four extracts]

Diáz Giles once rivalled Torroba and Sorozábal in popularity, but his only zarzuela to keep a toehold in the repertoire is El cantar del arriero - and even this has yet to appear complete in a CD transfer (BMG take note). Meanwhile the Columbia tape makes a more than acceptable stopgap, with Ausensi outstanding as the vicious muleteer intent on seducing his own daughter - though to be fair he gives up the idea when he discovers her identity. His well-known Act 2 romanza is delivered with swaggering aplomb. Cava is understandably pallid as the hapless Maribel, but Bermejo and Monreal make an excellent comedy pair, and Munguía makes musical bricks without straw as the ineffectual romantic tenor.

Blue Moon's brief extracts (11' with Redondo and Ottein at the top of their bent) are currently the only portions of the score to make it to CD.

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