Juan Ignacio Vecino, director of Patrimonio Actual and member of UNESCO’s International Dance Council, CID-UNESCO, is giving a lecture this evening at 7 pm at the Centro Riojano in Madrid, as part of the cycle UNESCO and all the world’s heritage sites, entitled Our Intangible Heritage. La Zarzuela, the lyric genre and its building. A whole musical and artistic world that must be recognised by UNESCO. Also taking part in the event are Daniel Bianco, director of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, and Francisco Valencia Alonso, grandson of Maestro Alonso.
The people create and protect their popular music and ancestral dance. UNESCO has named them a world heritage site for their protection, conservation and transmission from generation to generation. Cultural heritage is not limited to monuments and collections of objects, but also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as: oral traditions, performing arts, social customs, rituals, festive events, knowledge and customs related to nature and the universe and knowledge and techniques linked to traditional craftsmanship. There are currently 549 elements declared by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage, corresponding to 127 countries. Spain has 18 declarations, and our ZARZUELA should be considered one more.
