Travel to
the heart of Madrid
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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
For the first time at the Opéra de Lausanne.
Roberto Forés Veses studied orchestra conducting at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. A winner of the Orvieto competition and the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition, he is the musical and artistic director of the Orchestre d’Auvergne. He made his debut in opera conducting 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. With the Orchestre d’Auvergne, he has led numerous projects and in 2015 recorded two albums with trumpet player Romain Leleu and harpist Naoko Yoshino. In addition, he has conducted orchestras including NHK Symphony Orchestra from Tokyo, the orchestras of Odense, Salta and Yamagata, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre de Cannes and The Russian State ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ Symphony Orchestra. From 2018 to 2019, at the same time as an intense season in Clermont-Ferrand with the l’Orchestre d’Auvergne, he toured with his orchestra in Argentina, Spain and Japan. His future projects include Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Opéra de Reims.
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.
Born in Argentina, Florencia Machado studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires at the School of Music of the National University of Rosario. She is finalist and winner of several competitions in Rosario, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires. Florencia Machado performs in Argentina on numerous stages in Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angelica, La Cenerentola and Fedra at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Flosshilde in Das Rheingold at Teatro Argentina de la Plata, Adalgisa in Norma at Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires and as Mercedes in Carmen at the St. Margarethen Festival. In the pipeline: the title role in Carmen at the San Juan Opera, Isaura in Tancredi in Santiago de Chile or Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Teatro Colon.
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).
Born in Cordoba, Pablo Garcia Lopez trained in Salzburg, Valencia, Berlin and Madrid with John Norris, Fran Parrado and tenor Joel Prieto. Since his debut in Die Zauberflöte at the Villamarta Theatre in Jerez, he has been regularly invited to sing in numerous opera houses: La Vera Costanza in Lièges, Turandot, La bohème and I due Foscari in Valencia, Donã Francisquita in Toulouse, Turandot in Tuscany, Dead man walking in Madrid, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro and Rigoletto in Oviedo, Così fan tutte in Málaga and Tosca, Les contes d’Hoffmann and Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Cordóba. In 2017, he is invited to Israel by Zubin Mehta to sing Turandot with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra alongside Gregory Kunde and soprano Anna Pirozzi. His discography includes Turandot para Decca conducted by Zubin Mehta and Puccini’s La bohème under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. He recently recorded Lorenzo Palomo’s Sinfonia Córdoba for Naxos, with Jesús López-Cobos.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La Traviata (2015).
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).