The Pelele / Mavra. Chamber opera

This co-production of the Fundación Juan March and Teatro La Zarzuela is revived in Pamplona after its premiere in Madrid and presents a double program with the chamber operas: El Pelele by Julio Gómez and Mavra by Igor Stravinsky, with musical direction by Borja Mariño and stage direction by Tomás Muñoz.

The production of El Pelele is based on the original version for voice and piano by Gómez and a libretto by Cipriano de Rivas Cherif inspired by the tonadillas of the 18th century. The work, with a costumbrista setting set in a timeless present, addresses one of the problems traditionally associated with women: remaining single. Its protagonist is Cayetana, who looks out the window while waiting for a suitor who never appears. The nostalgia for a time that is vanishing consumes her and, thus, between the rumor of the courtship of her neighbors and the indifference of a captain, she decides to look for a solution to her problem by sewing a rag doll.

In the case of MavraStravinsky took a bookplate by Borís Kojnó based on a story by Aleksandr Pushkin to compose Mavra, which was premiered in 1922, with the version represented in this staging. In this opera the protagonist is also a woman, Parasha, who laments the absence of the young man she is in love with. Then the beloved appears, with whom she arranges a date before the young woman's mother appears, announcing the death of her most beloved servant, whom Parasha offers to find a replacement. Both works share the struggle of their protagonists to achieve their amorous desires.