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Created in Madrid in 1923, Doña Francisquita by Amadeo Vives belongs to the ‘género grande’ of zarzuela. A true depiction of moral standards, this comedy portrays characters from Spanish popular society. The libretto is inspired by one of Lope de Vega’s best comedies, La discreta enamorada (1605), and gives free course to the emotions, dealt with elegantly, inventively and cheerfully by one of the most important Spanish composers from the beginning of the 20th century. The young Francisquita is infatuated with a student who is burning with ardour for a fashionable actress, Aurora La Beltrana. But loves makes the naive girl resourceful and she manages to overcome various obstacles, finally conquering the gallant man’s heart. While the dramatic themes, like men’s blindness to their feelings, are timeless, it is the everyday people in the street that animate the intriguing plot. The faïence mender, the travelling haberdasher, the orange and water sellers, the civil guards, the night-watchman and the dancers are all animated by themes from Spanish popular music. Considered a masterpiece of zarzuela from the beginning of the 20th century, Doña Francisquita captivates us with the charm of Madrid’s atmosphere and its inimitable flavour. A discovery not to be missed.
Libretto by Federico Romero and Guillermo Fernández-Shaw adapted from Lope de Vega
First performed at Teatro Apolo, Madrid, October 17, 1923
Critical Edition by Miguel Roa for
ICCMU and SGAE
Roberto Forés Veses studied conducting at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He has been a prizewinner at the Orvieto and Evgeny Svetlanov competitions, as well as the musical and artistic director of the Orchestre d’Auvergne. He made his opera conducting debut in 2008 at the Teatro Regio in Turin in Salome and L’elisir d’amore and at the Bolshoi Theatre in Macbeth. Since then, he has conducted numerous productions in Nice, Montpellier, Avignon, Vichy, Helsinki, Rouen and Orvieto. He has co-directed numerous projects with the Orchestra of Auvergne, and recorded two albums in 2015 with trumpeter Romain Leleu and harpist Naoko Yoshino. In addition, he has conducted the NHK orchestras of Tokyo, Odense, Salta and Yamagata, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Orchestre de Cannes and the Evgeny Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra. In 2018-2019, in addition to an intense season in Clermont-Ferrand with the Orchestre d’Auvergne, he toured with his orchestra in Argentina, Spain and Japan. Future projects include Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Opéra de Reims.
At the Opéra de Lausanne, he has directed: Doña Francisquita (2020).
Pour la première fois à l’Opéra de Lausanne.
Le metteur en scène Lluís Pasqual est un des fondateurs du Théâtre Lliure à Barcelone. Il allie le travail de mise en scène avec la direction artistique d’institutions comme le Centro Dramático Nacional de Madrid, Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe de Paris, la Biennale de Venise, le Teatro Arriaga à Bilbao et le Teatre Lliure. Il a realisé des mises en scène pour le Piccolo Teatro de Milan, le Théâtre Maly de Saint-Pétersburg, le Teatro Martín de Buenos Aires et le Festival d’Avignon. Ses spectacles récents incluent La vida es sueño, Romancero Gitano, Medea, In memoriam, La quinta del biberó et King Lear de Shakespeare. À l’opéra, il a créé des productions au Liceu de Barcelone, au Teatro Real de Madrid, à l’Opéra de Paris, à la Scala et au Festival de Salzburg. Parmi ses distinctions, citons les Premi Nacional de Teatre de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Premio Nacional de Teatro du Ministère de la culture, Premi Ciutat de Barcelone. Il est chevalier de l’ordre national de la Légion d’honneur et Creu Sant Jordi de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Il est également l’auteur de l’essai De la mano de Federico évoquant sa relation à Federico García Lorca.
Ismael Jordi studied singing in Madrid and received from Queen Sofia the Alfredo Kraus Prize for best student Prix Meilleur élève d’Alfredo Kraus. Critics have called him “the Spanish tenor of the 20th century”. Ismael Jordi has performed on many international stages in a vast repertoire: Falstaff in Strasbourg; Der Rosenkavalier in Toulouse and Amsterdam; La Traviata in Marseille, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Seville, Naples, Venice, Vienna, Amsterdam and at Covent Garden; Mignon at the Opéra Comique; L’elisir d’amore at the Staatsoper Berlin and in Seville and Madrid; Lucia di Lammermoor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in Dresden, Barcelona, Naples, Zurich, Amsterdam, Tokyo and at Covent Garden; Rigoletto in Hamburg, Bilbao, Verona and Rome; Anna Bolena in Frankfurt and Zurich; Lucrezia Borgia in Munich and Liège; Roméo et Juliette in Jerez, Amsterdam and Montréal; Eugène Onéguine in Bilbao; Iphigénie en Tauride in Valencia; Linda di Chamounix in Barcelona and Rome; Roberto Devereux and Faust in Madrid; Manon in Liège and Seoul; Le duc d’Albe at Opera Vlaanderen; Martha at the Vienna Volksoper; Maria Stuarda at Covent Garden.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La Traviata (2015).
For the first time at the Opéra de Lausanne.
After a course in Spanish dance, this young soprano from Seville began her studies in singing at the city’s Conservatoire. Following performances in several concerts and zarzuelas, she made her debut in opera in La clemenza di Tito in Valladolid. She has won several prizes: 1st prize and special audience prize at the Seville City Contest, 3rd ‘Flaviano Labò’ prize, audience Montserrat Caballé prize, 1st prize from the Opéra Santa Cruz Tenerife, 1st ‘Ciudad de Logroño’ prize, 3rd prize and audience ‘Alfredo Kraus’ prize. She also won 2nd prize in the Viñas 2018 competition and special prizes Plácido Domingo, Teatro de la Zarzuela, Teatro Real, Audience, Ópera de Sabadell and Concerlírica. Her recent performances include La Cenerentola, La Bohème and Il viaggio a Reims in Tenerife; La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and Marina at La Zarzuela; The little sweep and Lucia di Lammermoor in Seville; Il viaggio a Reims at the Liceu in Barcelona. In other countries she has performed in Il Turco in Italia in Piacenza, Ravenna and Modena; Francesca da Rimini and Giulietta e Romeo by Vaccaj at the Festival della Valle d’Itria; Falstaff and Rigoletto in Genoa, and Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo at the Wildbad Festival.
For the first time at the Opéra de Lausanne.
Originally from Argentina, Florencia Machado is a graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the National University of Rosario. She is a laureate of the Teatro Colón International Singing Contest under the patronage of Kiri Te Kanawa, Sumi Jo, Sherrill Milnes, Lenore Rosenberg, Nicholas Sears and Renaud Lorange. She also received the special prize of The New Generation at the Oscar della Lirica in 2012 at Torre del Lago in Italy.
She has performed in Argentina on numerous stages in L’italiana in Algeri, Werther, La Cenerentola and Le nozze di Figaro at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Cosí Fan Tutte at Teatro Argentina de la Plata, Adalgisa in Norma at Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires as well as at the St. Margarethen Festival as Mercedes in Carmen. In project: Fenena in Nabucco and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Teatro Colón.
For the first time at the Opéra de Lausanne.
At the National Theatre of Zarzuela, Milagros Martin has played in many titles. In 1992 she sang at the Gala de Reyes with Placido Domingo as director. In 1994, she performed in El Manojo de Rosas at the Rome Opera and at the Odeón Theatre in Paris, La Chulapona in Paris, Luisa Fernanda in Mexico City, El Gato Montes in Washington. She has performed in Carmen in various productions. She has played in La Vida Breve at the Teatro Real in Madrid, collaborates in the zarzuela seasons in Bogotá, as part of the cultural exchange between INAEM and that city. She regularly sings different titles at the National Theatre of Zarzuela. She also participated in the world premiere of the contemporary opera El Juez by the Austrian composer Christian Kolonovits, directed by the José Carreras company.
Miguel Sola studied singing at the Conservatory of Madrid where he won first prize. His musical career is both varied and extensive: he participates in many concerts, operas, zarzuelas, oratorios and several world premieres. His numerous recordings include Un ballo in Maschera, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Le nozze di Figaro, Jenu˚fa and Werther at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and Cyrano de Bergerac, with Plácido Domingo, at the Valencia Opera. Miguel Sola is regularly invited to the Zarzuela seasons in Spain, where he sings the greatest roles of this repertoire, such as in Doña Francisquita, El Gato Montés, La Revoltosa and La Gran Via. He has worked with great conductors such as Jesús Lopez Cobos, Frühbeck de Burgos, and Riccardo Chailly, and has played the leading roles in the operatic repertoire such as Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and the title role in Don Pasquale.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Cosi fan Tutte (2006), Pan y Toros (2009).
The Spanish tenor Pablo García-López is one of the current rising stars of the European opera and concert stages. The newspaper El Mundo praises “the decisive beauty of his clear-lyrical tone, his musicality and his unquestionable communicability”. Born in Cordoba, Pablo García-López began his vocal studies at the conservatory of his native city with the tenor Juan Luque. He then went on to perfect his skills at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and at the Centro de Perfeccionamiento Plácido Domingo at the Palau de las Artes in Valencia. He completed his training in Berlin with John Norris. In 2020 he was awarded the Bandera de las Artes de Andalucía. In recent years, he has made notable appearances on the most prestigious stages in Spain, and has made his international debut in opera houses such as the Opéra Royal de Wallonie – Liège, the Opéra de Lausanne, the Royal Opera of Muscat, and the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse. He has worked with Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Chailly, Jesús López-Cobos and Omer Meir Wellber. His 2021/22 season includes roles such as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Gran Teatro de Córdoba. Pablo is particularly associated with the Mozart repertoire, singing Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). Released in 2020, his first solo album “Rutas” accompanied by pianist Aurelio Viribay received the “Melómano de Oro” awarded by the music magazine Melómano. His discography is completed by Puccini’s Turandot (Decca) conducted by Zubin Mehta, Puccini’s La bohème (Accentus) conducted by Riccardo Chailly, and Palomo’s Cordoba Symphony (Naxos) conducted by Jesús López-Cobos.
At the Opéra Lausanne: Gaston (La Traviata) 2015, Cardona (Doña Francisquita) 2020.
Mohamed Haidar obtained a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the American University of Beirut, before starting musical studies at his country’s National Conservatory. He continued his musical studies at the Lyon Conservatory and then at the Geneva Haute école de musique, in the class of Marcin Habela. During his training, he was awarded a scholarship from the Colette Mosetti Foundation. He is currently pursuing a concert master at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne in the class of Stephan MacLeod. At the Opéra de Lausanne, he made his debut as Ramirez in Francis Lopez’s La belle de Cadiz – Route lyrique (2016), before singing Sergent des douanes in La bohème (2017).
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Hermann / Schlemil in Les contes d’Hoffmann (2019).
The Opéra de Lausanne Choir is a core group of about forty chorists who are, for the most part, students from singing or professional specialisation classes at the Lausanne Conservatory or other conservatories in Western Switzerland. Chorists are selected by audition and periodically reviewed. Choir directors are chosen from among the most experienced and vary for each performance.
The Opéra de Lausanne Choir is regularly hired by orchestras and festivals in Switzerland and abroad: Création by Haydn (December 2003 – conductor Jerzy Semkow) and Stabat Mater by Rossini (February 2006 – conductor Corrado Rovaris) as a part of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra season, Roland by Lully (concert version) at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, at the Opéra de Montpellier and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Bruxelles (January 2004 – Talens Lyriques orchestra – conductor Christophe Rousset), Die Entführung aus dem Serail concert version at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (January 2005), La grotta di Trofonio (concert version) at the Théâtre de Poissy (March 2005 – Talens Lyriques, conductor Christophe Rousset), Nocturnes by Debussy at the 2007 Montreux Septembre musical (RSO Berlin – conductor Marek Janowski).
In 2008 and 2010 the choir performed as part of the OCL season under the baton of Christian Zacharias: Te Deum by Bruckner (February 2008), Les Noces by Stravinski (December 2008, also in Saint-Gall) and Beethoven’s IXe Symphony (April 2010).
The Choir has also been on many tours with Opéra de Lausanne productions: Opéra de Vichy (Rigoletto in 2005, Il Turco in Italia in 2006, La veuve joyeuse in 2007, Carmen in 2008, Amelia al ballo in 2008 under the direction of Arie Van Beek and La Traviata in 2009 conducted by Roberto Rizzi Brignoli), Opéra Comique (Amelia al ballo by Menotti in March 2007). In October 2008, the Opéra de Lausanne and its choir toured Japan for five performances of Carmen.
The Opéra de Lausanne Choir is featured on several CDs: Le Nez by Chostakovitch, Roland by Lully and La grotta di Trofonio by Salieri. The Choir was also involved in televised performances on RTS of La fille de Madame Angot, La Belle Hélène and, for the reopening of the Opéra, L’elisir d’amore.
A native of Valencia, Jordi Blanch Tordera studied there before becoming director and piano teacher at the conservatory of his home town. As a choirmaster, he has collaborated in various operas under the notable direction of Lorin Mazel and Riccardo Chailly. He is currently assistant conductor of the Valencia Opera Choir in a vast repertoire ranging from opera to the great symphonic works and collaborates regularly with Fabio Biondi, Nicolas Luisotti and Roberto Abbado.
For the first time at the Opéra de Lausanne.
Alejandro Andújar studied fine arts and scenography in Madrid and Munich. He works with directors such as Alfredo Sanzol, Gerardo Vera, Jose Luis Gomez and Helena Pimenta at the Spanish National Dramatic Centre, the Compañia Nacional de Teatro Clásico and other production houses. He collaborates closely with Lluís Pasqual on shows such as King Lear, Bérénice or Médée. In opera, he collaborates with the Teatro Real, the Liceu, the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the Palau des Arts de Valencia and the Grand Théâtre de Genève in various productions, including Macbeth, Il Trovatore, Médée, La Voix humaine and El Barbellio de Lavapiés.
For the first time at the Opéra de Lausanne.
Pascal Mérat makes his debut in Paris as technical director of the ballet company Théâtre du Silence and the Bouffes du Nord with Peter Brook. There he collaborated on numerous opera, theatre and ballet productions throughout Europe: Comédie-Française, Scala, Liceu, for artists such as Maurice Béjart, Pier Francesco Maestrini or Jeanne Moreau.
Nuria Castejón trains at the Spanish Ballet School. As a dancer, she works for the best Spanish companies and collaborates with renowned choreographers such as Antonio Gades, Goyo Montero or Alberto Lorca. She began her career as a choreographer with Emilio Sagi at the Zarzuela Theatre in Madrid before working for many opera houses around the world: Los Angeles, Miami, Rome, Paris, Lisbon and Buenos Aires.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La chanteur du Mexique (2017).