A NIGHT AT THE ZARZUELA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 790, 10 September 1954, Page 18

A NIGHT AT THE ZARZUELA

SPANISH youth, humble but determined, leaves the sea-coast village where he was born and sets off for America in search of gold to offer the young girl to whom he has secretly pledged his heart. An old, old story with the simplest of plots-that’s Los Gavilanes or The Sparrow Hawks, but, set to music which is romantic, sentimental and deeply and exuberantly melodious, it has become one of Spain’s favourite operettas. New Zealand listeners will be introduced to The Sparrow Hawks in a programme from the ZB Concert Hall series, in which a recent recording from Spain of this operetta will be broadcast. Spain has a thriving and virile lyric theatre tradition which is virtually unknown outside its own borders. Spanish zarzuelas* (you pronounce it as though you had a lisp) or operettas are as characteristic of that country as those. of Gilbert and Sullivan or Edward German are of England. In The Gramophone recently Lionel Salter had this to say: "Fully to appreciate them, one needs to have a slight acquaintance with the his-

tory of the Spanish lyric theatre, and certainly to have seen at least one typical performance from the vast repertoire. Like any other continuing artform, the ‘zarzuela’ has established its own traditions and the English listener has to approach it, not with any preconceived ideas taken from French or Viennese operettas, but as a distinctive style of its own, in which little emphasis is laid on the intricacies of plot but much on true local colour and on the folk dances which are invariably introduced." The Sparrow Hawks is based on an old story by José Ramos Martin and the libretto has been set to music by one of Spain’s most prominent lyric theatre composers, Jacinto Guerrero. The first performance of the operetta was at the Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid on December 7, 1923, and since that date it has become the most played piece in the Spanish lyric repertory, both in Spain and Latin America. Los Gavilanes or The Sparrow Hawks will be heard at 9.0 p.m. on Sunday nights in ZB Concert Hall, from 2ZA on September 19, 1ZB on September 26, 2ZB on October 3, and 3ZB on October 10,