Benamor
Music: Pablo Luna
Libretti: Antonio Paso and Ricardo González del Toro
(Theater an der Wien, Vienna, 23 January 2026)
reviewed by Pierre-René Serna
Benamor in Vienna
Christof Loy continues his international promotion of zarzuela. Following El barberillo de Lavapiés in Basel, he has staged Benamor in Vienna with his zarzuela company, Los Paladines. And as in Basel, his production has met with success. Thus zarzuela makes a triumphal re-entry onto the Viennese musical scene* …
Pablo Luna’s Benamor, however, is quite different from the archetypal Barberillo de Lavapiés and, on the contrary, constitutes a zarzuela breaking with tradition. Furthermore, the musical inspiration for this work, classified as an ‘operetta’ (in my opinion, a sign of the zarzuela’s decline in the 1920s), doesn’t always reach the sublime heights to which contemporaries like Federico Moreno Torroba and Amadeo Vives – or Luna himself elsewhere – has accustomed us. In fact it would be stretching things to call Benamor a masterpiece (another personal opinion). This might make it difficult to explain Loy’s choice for re-introducing zarzuela to the Viennese public, especially given the work’s unrepresentative nature. The explanation lies in the staging, which at the end shows two homosexual couples, one male and one female, complicated by the plot’s gender changes for the two principal heroes/heroines. The idea serves to glorify a theme that the director describes as ‘subversive’.
At Theater an der Wien, which can be thought of as the Viennese equivalent of Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela (or Paris’s Opéra-Comique), the staging is nonetheless very well-suited to the action. Loy has eschewed Orientalist set designs, except in a subtle way; the costumes and maquillage blend period references (to those tales of the Thousand and One Nights) with contemporary ones. Overall stage movement is fully energised, with the score’s fiery dance passages choreographed by Javier Pérez. And all the participants convincingly immerse us in the plot’s twists and turns – an expressive production!
Certainly the performers lack nothing in temperament, and demonstrate excellent vocal control. The soprano Marina Monzó is a Princess (or Prince) Benamor of exquisite lyricism. While countertenor Federico Fiorio embodies Darío, the sultan (or sultana), with delicate singing and an ambiguous tessitura perfectly suited to a character initially written for a female soprano, baritone David Oller presents the Spanish hidalgo Juan de León with brilliant phrasing. The other roles are all equally well-executed. The Arnold Schoenberg Choir performs flawlessly (and with excellent Spanish pronunciation). The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien envelops the singing with Luna’s shimmering timbres. The entire score is well-conducted, under the baton of José Miguel Pérez-Sierra (the current musical director of Teatro de la Zarzuela). And the audience, packed to the rafters, honours the performance with a well-deserved triumph. So zarzuela conquers Austria’s highly musical capital …
© Pierre-René Serna and zarzuela.net, 2026
* La generala (Vives) was performed at the Volksoper during 2002.
| Cast: Marina Monzó (Benamor), Federico Fiorio (Darío), David Oller (Juan de León), Sofía Esparza (Nitetis), Milagros Martín (Pantea), David Alegret (Abedul), Alejandro Baliñas Vieites (Rajah-Tabla), César Arrieta (Jacinto), Francisco J. Sánchez (Alifafe), Joselu López (Babilón), Nuria Pérez (Cachemira). Arnold Schoenberg Chor (d. Erwin Ortner), ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, c. José Miguel Pérez-Sierra. dir. Christof Loy, des. Herbert Murauer, cost. Barbara Drosihn, choreo. Javier Pérez. |  |
en español
Benamor, Teatro de la Zarzuela (2021, English)
Pablo Luna
homepage - zarzuela.net
16/II/2026