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Teatro de la Zarzuela, ''La Generala''

Madrid

With this collaboration, Emilio Sagi and Daniel Bianco continue the excellent one of the Teatro Real of Madrid, where, for five years, to the director and to the scenographer had been submitted, respectively, the artistic direction and the technical one.The merry-go-round, around which the scenography and the action of the second action are articulated, is endowed with vertical backdrops made of white BGO - Gobelin on which is painted an exotic river landscape.The tulle is, naturally, used for realizing some games of transparency, thanks to which the motives of the painted landscape overlap to what is happening inside the merry-go-round.The Stage masking used by the installation was manufactured with black FBR - Bruxelles.
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One of the vertical backdrops made of white BGO - Gobelin on which is painted an exotic river landscape.La Generala is the most evident result of the influence that, during the beginnings of the Nine hundred century, the models of the Viennese operetta practiced on the Spanish tradition of the light lyric music, that up to that years was an exclusive appanage of the zarzuela, considered the national lyric gender for excellence. The photographic sequence illustrates the realization of the merry-go-round used in the second action.
In evidence the roll devices used to lift and lower the backdrops made of BGO - Gobelin on which the river landscape was painted.One of the most eye-catching consequences of the confluence of the Austrian operetta in the zarzuela was the change of the settings, that passed from regional to more or less exotic settings. «The libretto by Guillermo Perrín and Manuel de Palacios, not very dissimilar from that of The Merry Widow, narrates of an imaginary monarch, by now dethroned by his throne of Molavia (an imaginary country) and refugee in England - Sagi makes him appear in the prelude abandoned on an armchair, caressing an enormous crown and dozing with the real march that is played by an old gramophone.» Marcelo Cervelló-Eroles, L'opera, n. 225, page 54.
The plot of La Generala, that follows the tortuous attempts to combine a marriage of convenience for the son of the king of Molavia, included the plots of the resourceful wife of a general, it is not good for a likely realization.«With this material, certainly dangerous if it is wanted to make it believable, Emilio Sagi bets on the card of the bright game and it with that ''stage science'' that is so apt to him. Pressing rhythm, with savory notes on the servants' intervention in the real business in the first action and animated action on a monumental merry-go-round, in the second. [ ... ] A mise-en scène perfectly suitable also to update the story without betraying its original sense.» Marcelo Cervelló-Eroles, ibidem.
A second river landscape, painted this time on a backdrop made of ASL300S - Light Sceno width 300 cm - Flame retardant, is stretched here on the floor in the workshop during the workmanship.
The top coverage of the merry-go-round is constituted by a backdrop made of shaped segments realized with the fabric ARI - Reps Ignitex, color 116 blue and subsequently painted.
Two other backdrops made of ASC - Sceno, natural colour, have been painted with the draperies and the decorations of a curtain.
The trompe-l'oeil curtain painted on the backdrops made of ASC - Sceno is here installed on the merry-go-round.
La Generala
Operetta in two acts
Musica
Amadeo Vives (1871-1932)
Libretto
Guillermo Perrín y Vico
Manuel de Palacios
First night
Madrid, Gran Teatro de Madrid, 14/6/1912
Scenography
Daniel Bianco
Costume design
Jesùs Ruiz
Light design
Eduardo Bravo
Choreography
Nuria Castejón
Stage direction
Emilio Sagi
Staging
Teatro de la Zarzuela of Madrid
Season
2008

See also ...

ARI - Reps Ignitex

Muslin and canvas

ASC - Sceno

Muslin and canvas

BGO - Gobelin digital printing

Printing on fabrics

FBR - Bruxelles

Velvets

Stage maskings

Acoustic curtains

UMI - Mimenet

Stage nets