A Donizetti opera with a Malaga stamp closes the Lyric Season at the Cervantes

Paco Griñán

Málaga

A classic opera with a Malaga twist. In the production, both the music and the staging stand out. The Cervantes Theater closes its 37th Lyric Season with the staging of Donizetti's masterpiece, 'La fille du régiment' (The Daughter of the Regiment), a piece co-produced with the Villamarta Theater in Jerez and led by Malaga natives Salvador Vázquez (music) and Javier Hernández (scene). A work set in the Napoleonic wars but arriving in Malaga with a "contemporary and universalizing perspective," according to the stage director of this piece that was presented this Monday and will hit the stage the following Friday 22 and Sunday 24.

Salvador Vázquez, principal conductor of the Córdoba Orchestra, takes the musical direction from the pit, while Javier Hernández is responsible for the staging and artistic coordination of the cycle. The cast of this production, sponsored by the Unicaja Foundation, is led by Madrid soprano Rocío Pérez (Marie) and Almeria tenor Juan de Dios Mateos (Tonio), who will face the famous challenge of the nine 'high Cs' in the aria 'Ah! Mes amis quel jour de fête!'. The cast is completed by Javier Franco, Marina Pardo, Malaga native Luis Pacetti, and actress Rosa Moreno.

Donizetti's opera returns to Malaga after 25 years with humor, social criticism, and a love story.

A key piece of bel canto, 'La fille du régiment' returns to the Cervantes Theater a quarter of a century after its last performance in 2001. The work, originally premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1840, is noted for its vitality and its ability to combine romantic intrigue with social criticism and humor. "It's a fun opera, a story that makes you go home with a smile," says Salvador Vázquez, the musical director of the staging, who returns to the Cervantes podium established as one of the most promising conductors on the national scene. The maestro will lead the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cervantes Theater Resident Choir, while the costumes are designed by Gabriela Salaverri and the choreography by Zaida Ballesteros.

Change of scenery

The plot travels to the Napoleonic era with the story of Marie, an orphan adopted by a French regiment who falls in love with Tonio, a young partisan who decides to switch sides to enlist in the army and be able to marry her. The appearance of the Marquise de Berkenfield, who claims to be Marie's aunt to take her away and marry her to a nobleman, triggers a conflict between social duty and fate against love and feelings. A story that in the staging by Javier Hernández moves away from the original rigid military context to embrace a more contemporary aesthetic.

"Mitigating this French military and patriotic framework in some way, applying a contemporary and universalizing perspective, has been one of the objectives of the staging," says the Malaga stage director, who adds that the proposal incorporates elements "from musical theater to caricature the patriotic fervor associated with war; the soldiers become a picturesque group of French sailors, moving the action from the original Alpine setting to a stylized seaport."

These elements join the music of Donizetti which "provides moving moments that rise above mere entertainment," considers Hernández, noting that, "like in his other comedies, the decidedly cheerful moments contrast with others where, seamlessly, humor transmutes, emerging profound feeling." The uniqueness of this staging is complemented by the costumes, which also have a local touch as they "refer, without realistic pretension, to Andalusia," says the director about this latest opera of the Lyric Season, which was presented at a press conference along with the director of the Cervantes Theater, Juan Antonio Vigar, and the head of Performing Arts at the Unicaja Foundation, Gema Domínguez. Although most of the seating is already sold, there are still tickets available for the two performances.

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• Opera
• Fundación Unicaja
• Teatro Cervantes de Málaga
• Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga