Adiós
Julián
Madrid, Teatro
Albéniz
(14 September 2007)
Reviewed by Ignacio
Jassa Haro
Zarzuela Pocket Theatre
Berlin’s Hebbel Teater is a dynamic three-auditorium company in the central district of Kreuzberg, called HAU1, 2 and 3. It programmes risky shows of all kinds, ranging from varied experiences provided by young directors to exploration of “exotic” repertoire. In this unusual space zarzuela has been quite a constant lately. Noche de verano en la verbena de la Paloma, seen in August 2006 at the Auditorio de El Escorial and reviewed here by Enrique Mejías García, was first seen in HAU1 during 2002. Only a few weeks ago a new show with the striking title of Machos - Chicas - Noches calientes produced by the Komische Oper, brought together three young artistic teams in HAU1 to mount a género chico triple bill in German (made up of La revoltosa, La verbena de la Paloma and El bateo) which hasn’t been seen in Spain for decades.
A similar context produced Adiós Julián, a show premiered during the 2001 summer festival of Spanish Classics at Berlin’s Kulturbrauerei. Marina Bollaín has put together a first taste of zarzuela for an audience unfamiliar with the repertoire. She selected a series of musical numbers from famous zarzuelas (ranging from 19th century género grande to the works of the nineteen thirties of the twentieth century, taking in – how could it be otherwise? – the turn-of-the-century género chico), integrating them into a narrative full of the love trials and tribulations of two pairs of Madrid chulos, full of stereotypical situations. The aim was to comedically evoke the Spain of Machado’s “military band and tambourine”, aware of its uses and abuses (especially of a sexist nature). The result is an entertaining musical comedy, despite the fact that it contains no spoken texts, but a sequence of numbers sung and danced; we follow the story through the drama unfolding on stage, a simple (even puerile) one, but rendered inevitably poignant thanks to the arresting strength of the supporting music. We would be right to recognize in Bollaín’s first contact with zarzuela an exploration of novel and imaginative formulas that reached their culmination in last year’s brilliant Noche de verano.
The Teatro Albéniz revival is under the aegis of the Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid, which previously mounted a zarzuela production in May this year with the luxurious anthology Viva Madrid! presented at the Palacio de Deportes in Calle Alcalá. The pit was manned by an ensemble of ten instrumentalists from the orchestra, who under the flamboyant baton of Manuel Coves brought to life Armin Pommeranz’s equally flamboyant instrumental reductions made for the Berlin premiere from the original scores.
On stage we enjoyed good singing from the eight-woman chorus, which plays a pivotal role both vocally and dramatically, in a spectacle which in any case abounds in choral numbers. Curiously the work’s titular couple, tenor Javier Checa and soprano Carmen Campos, failed to dislodge them from the centre. As Julián, who had to sing several romanzas not written for tenor, Checa struggled with vocal problems that muffled his diction, though he was quite successful elsewhere. Conversely, Campos’ Mari Pepa grasped the expression of her character well enough; but the biggest failure was the lack of chemistry between the pair, something that will not do in a piece of this nature. On the other hand the second couple, mezzo-soprano Isabel Egea and comic tenor Pipe Vao Bel, made a good fist of adapting to the requirements of the staging through appropriate acting style and adequate singing line.
Scenery, costumes and lighting (with an attractive Pop Art aesthetic) were simple but extremely effective. The dance sections performed by Noelia Fernández, Miriam Arias and Raquel Tamarit also merited applause. I have to say that it was a mistake to revive this spectacle, full of point in Berlin a little more than five years ago, in Madrid. First because of the weakness of the leading pair, which hamstrings the show; secondly, because it was a pilot project refined by the director on her second foray into the world of zarzuela, and as such meaningless to reproduce today. Of course the idea of a light anthology, with a sense of humour and in chamber format, could be a good way to promote the genre in spaces outside the larger lyric venues; let’s think of this one as a learning experience.
© Ignacio Jassa Haro
2007
translation © Christopher Webber 2007
Adiós
Julián (Pocket Zarzuela)
Cast: Carmen
Campos (Mari Pepa); Javier Checa (Julián); Isabel Egea (Menegilda); Pipe
Vao Bel (Pepe); Noelia Fernández, Miriam Arias & Raquel Tamarit
(dancers); Solistas de la Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid;
Inés Aparicio & Josune Lasa (design and costumes); Olga
García A.A.I. (lighting); Armin Pommeranz (musical arrangements); Marina
Bollaín (d., dramaturge, choreographer); Manuel Coves (c.)
Production: Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de
Madrid
en español27 November 2007