One of the greatest and most famous zarzuelas composed by maestro Jacinto Guerrero and written by Federico Romero and Guillermo Fernández-Shaw is the two-act La rosa del azafrán, presented by the Teatro de la Zarzuela from 25th January to 11th February.
José María Moreno directs this new Teatro de la Zarzuela production, with stage direction by Ignacio García, set design by Nicolás Boni and choreography by Sara Cano. The work has an exemplary cast: Sagrario Yolanda Auyanet, Carmen Romeu, Juan Pedro Juan Jesús Rodríguez, Rodrigo Esteves and Catalina Carolina Moncada, among others. The Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid and the Coro del Teatro de La Zarzuela will be conducted by maestro Antonio Fauró.
The action is set in a village in La Mancha – perhaps Manzanares – in a vague year in the 1860s. In the house of some well-to-do peasants, the saint’s day of the master is being celebrated. Among the servants, servants and shepherds who are celebrating is Juan Pedro, a formal young man who is courting Catalina; Catalina is also “attentive” to Moniquito, a boy who has arrived carrying a statue of San Roque, and who is soon rejected by Catalina. Catalina tells her mistress that Juan Pedro has asked her for a date. Sagrario approves of the relationship as she has a good opinion of the young man and is attracted to him but, not considering it appropriate for the bride and groom to sleep under the same roof before their betrothal, she demands that Juan Pedro no longer sleep in the house.
Sagrario calls Juan Pedro and asks him how men explain love, as she has never had a lover, due to her rather proud disposition; in the dialogue, the mistress makes a hint to the young man that he does not understand, but Catalina does, and understanding the mistress’s feelings, decides to reject her. It would no longer be necessary for her to sleep outside the estate, but the mistress insists that she leave. Tickets can be purchased at this link.
