Past Production Reviews
1Daniel Bianco’s settings, with their sliding lattices and Persian arches, are surprisingly close to the 1923 originals, replacing painted backcloths with equally colourful modern back projections. Is this, I wonder, his olive branch to traditional audiences, or a tongue-in-cheek exercise in post-modernism? No matter: paired with Gabriela Salaverri’s bold, technicolour diaphony of costumes and Albert Faura’s poetic lighting (some of the best I’ve seen at Teatro de la Zarzuela) they cook up an enchanting visual soufflé. The Good is the choreographed, musical-theatre style staging of the musical numbers, fluid and wittily in period. Viana also plays the ‘first comedian’ role of Abedul, with unexpectedly quiet, self-absorbed whimsy, rather than the verbal and physical skills we expect in such roles. Francisco J. Sánchez is a well-projected captain of the Janissaries, Gerardo Bullón and Gerardo López contrast drolly as the ‘butch’ and ‘fem’ suitors for Benamor’s hand (their catchy entry number is deliciously moved by Castejón). Irene Palazón’s lustily forthright Netetis reminds me of a young Amelia Font – easy to bring to mind when the original is also here, breezily strutting her stuff as the royals’ mother, Pantea. How nice to see her back where she belongs. Emilio Sánchez is another blessedly familiar face, precise and characterful as ever, in the role of the slave-trader Babilón. Esther Ruiz, in the acting role of the harem slave Cachemira, provides one of the show’s edgiest moments when breaking away terror-stricken from Princess Benamor’s unexpectedly ardent embraces. The outstanding vocalist on the night was undoubtedly Carol García, whose creamy mezzo-soprano is in demand throughout Europe, for everything from baroque to modern opera. Her gentle presence and touching confusion of identity kept her ‘Sultan’ Darió in the mind long after the curtain fell, and her soaring line in the love duet with del Castillo’s Juan capped her contribution to the evening, as well as the composer’s own.
