Pepita Jiménez
Music: Isaac Albéniz
Libretto: Francis Burdett Money-Coutts,
based on the novel by Juan Valera
1964 revision by Pablo Sorozábal
Teatro de la Zarzuela
(Madrid, October 1, 2025)
a critique by Miccone
Back in 1919, responding in The Complete Opera Book to his own question ‘Why Some Operas are Rarely Given’, the American critic Gustav Kobbé wrote that, ‘audiences of today will simply not stand for spoken dialogue in grand opera’. It seems incredible that, more than a century later, Teatro de la Zarzuela chimes in with this crazy way of planning its repertoire. But the first season entirely designed by Isamay Benavente looks worryingly like an epilogue to the Daniel Bianco years. This newborn ‘Teatro de la Gran Ópera Española’, located on Madrid’s Calle de Jovellanos, happily presents four operatic productions out of a total of six, namely: Pepita Jiménez, La Edad de Plata (a double bill of Goyescas and El retablo de maese Pedro), El gitano por amor by Manuel García and a new production of El Gato Montés (!) by Christof Loy. The first modern revival of El Potosí Submarino by Arrieta and a new Jugar con fuego will be the only zarzuelas in the line-up, solitary flowers in the middle of a dramatic desert.
But facing reality – and playing the game demanded by this imitation opera house which continues to ‘do its homework’ for Teatro Real – I must admit that the idea of seeing Pablo Sorozábal’s 1964 revision of Albéniz’s Pepita Jiménez on stage was seductive. Sad to say, the stage director Giancarlo del Monaco has single-handedly scuppered my hopes, by presenting one of the most anti-theatrical and commonplace shows I have ever ‘enjoyed’ in Madrid. It’s so bad that it almost makes me recall his rendition of Las golondrinas with nostalgia. Above the shouted ‘bravos!’ of the claque (unfortunately common at the Zarzuela’s first nights), the boos which greeted the venerable old regisseur were answered by putting his hands behind his ears with a gesture that seemed to say: ‘I don’t hear too well! Louder!!’
Scuppered … because what was seen last night in the Zarzuela was not at all Pablo Sorozábal’s version, in Spanish, with a tragic ending – a version that Mario Lerena has studied in exquisite depth in his programme notes, in an article that demands to be read. Last night we witnessed a slaughter, a snipping at the opera here, there and everywhere with astonishing arrogance, emasculating its dramaturgy and reducing it to a bare minimum of 75 minutes. The result does not – cannot – work. But on top of that, del Monaco forces the bleeding torso to conform to ‘his’ vision of Pepita Jiménez who here, of course, is presented as an elderly woman, sexually frustrated with uncontrollable impulses, on whom the Vicario tries to perform an exorcism.
We’re treated to all the predictable clichés of this dinosaur way of making opera as a tatty sum of ‘visual moments’ … a wanking seminarian; his father, a sadistic bully who abuses Antoñona; a Liebestot, alla Isolde; piles of hanging drapery; a chorus that trots on stage during the second act and then hangs around to watch until the end, without singing another note; and the inevitable stage revolve with an industrial structure of scaffolding and ladders that never stops spinning, squeaking and annoying the hell out of the audience. With all this junk, shipwreck was inevitable – even more so for those who, like your present correspondent, still have another sensational and exciting Pepita Jiménez engraved on our retinas – the 2013 show directed by Calixto Bieito at Teatros del Canal.
All in all, Guillermo García Calvo’s baton wove what magic it might, evoking the beauties of a score that says more the quieter it gets, although the hypnotic music of the second act was reduced to nearly nothing, with even the appearance of the children’s chorus suppressed. The soprano Ángeles Blancas did what she could as an actress with a role that, nowadays, is beyond her vocally. Luckily the tenor Antoni Lliteres – replacing the anticipated Leonardo Caimi – offered a polished reading, although the romanza Sorozábal inserts in the last act put him in trouble more than once. The best artistry of the evening came from Ana Ibarra, whose Antoñona received the warmest reception on a night that, as may be guessed, justified Pierre Boulez’s famous boutade: ‘We have to burn down the opera houses!’
To rid us of bad opera, specifically, the sort that can be afforded when shelling out from the public purse. Because here are the facts: according to the Transparency Portal of the General State Administration (type ‘Pepita’ in the left-hand search engine), the privilege of employing this Stage Director has cost Spaniards 50,000 euros.
I’m going straight back to Venice!
© Miccone & zarzuela.net, 2025
| Cast: Pepita Jiménez – Ángeles Blancas; Luis de Vargas – Antoni Lliteres; Antoñona – Ana Ibarra; Pedro de Vargas – Rodrigo Esteves; Vicario – Rubén Amoretti; Count of Genazahar – Pablo López; First Officer – Josep Fadó; Second Officer – Iago García Rojas; Orchestra of the Community of Madrid; Choir of the Teatro de la Zarzuela (Antonio Fauró, dir.); Giancarlo del Monaco (dir. esc.); Daniel Bianco (set design); Jesús Ruiz (costumes); Albert Faurá (lighting); Guillermo García Calvo (dir. mus.)
Production of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, 2025 |
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en español
Pablo Sorozábal
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4/X/2025