Javier Franco

While best known today for having composed the ending to Puccini's unfinished Turandot, Franco Alfano wrote some dozen operas, including Cyrano de Bergerac (1936) with a libretto by Henri Cain based on Edmond Rostand's drama of the same name. It is a moving tale of romantic misunderstanding, swashbuckling bravado and heartbreaking loyalty, in which the eloquent Cyrano feels unable to express his love for Roxane because of his famously protuberant nose except on behalf of his handsome but inarticulate friend, Christian.

With this new production by the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the Italian stage director Davide Livermore and the British musical director Karel Mark Chichon show us a series of pictures of customs that shine through in Luisa Fernanda.

Joaquín Gaztambide’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was first performed at the Teatro del Circo in 1852. Participating in the revival of this comic opera are Miguel Ángel Gómez-Martínez, the veteran musical director, who considers Gaztambide to be “interesting, enjoyable and the holder of an extraordinary musical quality”, and Marco Carniti, the stage director, who wants to make us enjoy the beauty of a work which cheerfully veers between dream and reality. The libretto has been completely revamped and the action moved to Rome in the 1950s. Broadcast live from the Teatro de la Zarzuela on February 10th, 2019.