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La Fundación de la Zarzuela Española review of the latest Magazine (Year 1, No.2) (November 2000) |
Like its predecessor, the 2nd issue of the Fundación's magazine is packed with rewarding and eye-catching features, reviews and news items. As before, the magazine presents a judicious mixture of the academic and the entertaining. There are absorbing scholarly articles on Baroque zarzuela, the Teatro de la Zarzuela between 1857 and 1860, zarzuela and television - and a fully documented review of the recent rise of zarzuela performance in Europe and America by María Luz González Peña, SGAE's Archivist. There is a delightful interview with the highly experienced actor Teófilo Calle, and one with the Director of the Teatro Villamarta of Jerez. There is also a useful reprint of Barbieri's combative 1877 pamphlet comparing the repertoire at the Teatro de la Zarzuela with the "foreign" operas at the Teatro Real.
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The singer under the spotlight is the great mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza, now in the autumn of her career. She speaks revealingly of the part zarzuela played and plays in her musical life, and of her first recordings with Ataulfo Argenta - "Una gran entrega con muy poco dinero" ... A great result on very little money. She praises La tempranica - the featured zarzuela discussed at length later in the issue - as a great work on the level of La vida breve, and discusses the vocal difficulty of alternating dialogue and song within the same work. Notably, she goes on to express her faith in contemporary Spanish musicians such as Cristóbal Halffter and Luis de Pablo. |
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The magazine is rounded out by Manuel García Franco's scrupulously complete appreciation of Ataulfo Argenta's many zarzuela recordings, and by Concha Giménez Marco's review of the three websites currently devoted to zarzuela - including of course Zarzuela!
The subscription is still set at 10,000 pesetas per year, plus a one-off joining fee of another 2,000 pesetas. A handsome graphic volume of great zarzuela singers will be made available to members only at some time later in the year. Anyone wishing to enquire about membership details should contact:
Fundación de la Zarzuela Española
C/Marqués de la Ensenada, 16
28004 Madrid
tel/fax: 91 349 10 31
email: fundzarz@terra.es
© Christopher Webber 2000