Spanish composer Lucas Vidal premieres “Trato de favor”, his first light opera, at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela.
Tomorrow Saturday 29 April, Teatro de la Zarzuela premieres Trato de favor, a new contemporary light opera, commissioned by the Madrid institution with the aim of updating the genre, composed by the young Spanish composer Lucas Vidal (Madrid, 1984) and written by Boris Izaguirre. This new production – which follows last year’s premiere of Policías y ladrones, composed by Tomás Marco – has stage direction by Emilio Sagi and Andrés Salado (and Salvador Vázquez in two of the twelve performances scheduled until 21 May) as conductor. The story of Trato de favor takes place entirely in a women’s prison, where a great diva of song and show business, brought to life by soprano Ainhoa Arteta, is imprisoned for financial reasons; the zarzuela, with a decidedly slapstick, absurd and human tone, has a double cast in two of the scheduled performances.
Alongside the aforementioned Ainhoa Arteta and her understudy, María Rey-Joly – playing the title character of Ana Mía – are mezzo-sopranos Nancy Fabiola Herrera and Cristina Faus in the role of the prison warden, tenors Enrique Ferrer and Javier Tomé as Juan Miguel, the only man serving time in the peculiar prison, who plays the role of a composer and music producer, Ana Mía’s former rogue boyfriend; the singer-actress Gurutze Beitia as the general supervisor of prisons; the roles of the inmates are played by the comic soprano Amelia Font, the mezzo-soprano María José Suárez and the actress-singer Lara Chaves; and the soprano Amparo Navarro, who plays the maid of the imprisoned diva and who takes on several of the key moments in the plot. The performances will also feature a brief appearance by the author of the zarzuela, the Venezuelan writer and television conductor Boris Izaguirre. The 19 May performance will be recorded by RTVE’s Radio Clásica for broadcast in the near future.