In 2018, the Teatro Principal de Alicante launched its I Residencia Lírica Maestro Chapí. A platform for local artistic manifestations and to promote new audiences that arises from the need to expand the range of initiatives that in recent years have positioned the Teatro Principal as a cultural reference.
The Compañía Lírica Alicantina became the first resident lyric company of the Principal with its work “Doña Francisquita”the first zarzuela created under the walls of the Principal with the support of the “I Residencia lírica Maestro Chapí”.
“Doña Francisquita” is a zarzuela in three acts, with libretto by Federico Romero Sarachaga and Guillermo Fernández-Shaw Iturralde, based on the comedy “La discreta enamorada” by Lope de Vega, with music by maestro Amadeo Vives, which premiered at the Teatro Apolo in Madrid in the 1920s.
The action is set in the romantic Madrid of the mid-nineteenth century, during the carnival. It is considered one of the greatest works of zarzuela, setting a model within the great genre. The libretto, freely based on Lope de Vega’s comedy, portrays romantic Madrid in a poetic and faithful way, creating pictures of great color and liveliness. Due to its characteristics, it can also be defined as a high quality comic opera.
In 2019, the Compañía Lírica Alicantina won the II Residencia Lírica Maestro Chapí, with “Pharaoh’s Court”. with the special collaboration of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Vinalopó and the Coro del Teatro Principal de Alicante, with an extensive cast led by Mari Carmen Yelo, Juana María del Toro, Javier Rubio, Adrián Quiñones and Nacho Hernández.
This biblical operetta in one act and five scenes is a zarzuela that mixes elements of operetta, zarzuela, revista, and even cuplé. It is famous for its dialogues full of sexual innuendo and connotations, songs with a spicy aroma and vaudeville-like entanglements, which was fashionable during the first third of the twentieth century.
In 2020 he won the III Residency “El huésped sevillano”, of the Compañía Lírica together with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Vinalopó and the Coro del Teatro Principal de Alicante.
In the imperial city of Toledo, at the beginning of the 17th century, Juan Luis, a court painter, was commissioned by the king to paint an Immaculate Virgin for the Royal Oratory. The artist hopes to find in Toledo the model that will serve him to realize his work. He meets Raquél, a woman of extraordinary beauty and daughter of Master Andrés Munestein, and is immediately captivated by her beauty: she is the woman he is looking for in his painting. Count Don Diego, taking advantage of the young Raquel’s departure from his house, on his way to the church, makes her his prisoner, taking her to the Mesón del Sevillano, waiting for the opportunity to take her out of the city.
In 2021 he won the IV Residence the Compañía Lírica Alicantina with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Vinalopó with “La rosa del azafrán”. This free adaptation of the novel El Perro del Hortelano, by Lope de Vega. Nearly forty artists perform in this zarzuela in two acts, with libretto by Federico Romero and Guillermo Fernández-Shaw, and music by Jacinto Guerrero, directed by Juanma Cifuentes and illuminated by Juanjo Llorens.
In post-war Spain, a woman, Sagrario, decides to take over the farm where she grew up. Families, like hers, dismembered by the war, and a landowner, Don Generoso, who has lost his mind due to economic ruin and the death of his son in the war, get by in very difficult times thanks to the efforts of a self-made woman. Juan Pedro’s arrival at the farm is not a major inconvenience until he sets his eyes on Catalina, one of the workers. “Suddenly, I saw him in love with someone else…and I was angry that he hadn’t noticed me.” The customs and social conveniences of the time make this love impossible. But Custodia, Sagrario’s housekeeper, will find the solution.
This year, La Compañía Lírica Alicantina presents La Viejecita and La Canción del Olvido on January 22, 2023.
