The zest and zeal of the zarzuela

De España vengo, soy española, en mis ojos me traigo luz de su cielo

y en mi cuerpo la gracia de la manola!

(I come from Spain, I am a Spaniard, in my eyes I bring the light of her sky and in my body the grace of her race!)

After an orchestral introduction, Preludio tambor de granaderos, this air from Luna’s zarzuela, is sung by Spanish soprano Luisa Torres Benito in the grandest spectacle of music and dance of the season, ¡Bravo Zarzuela! unveiled at the CCP Main Theater by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and The Embassy of Spain.

Everything from Madrid drives me wild,
and when I break out in song
with my gypsy accent
the flowers of my shawl come to life…

Castanets and the heels of male dancers click the wild Iberian rhythms of Luna’s music. And at certain moments during the reprise of the main melody, Spanish dancers Maria Jose Martin Ramirez, Eva Maria Coelho, Alfonso Gonzalez Rodriguez and Avelino Cazallo Gonzalez stomp their feet in rhythmic accord, heads held high with the pride of the Castillian in the art of their homeland.

The extravaganza, conceptualized and directed by the Ambassador of Spain, His Excellency Tomas Rodriguez-Pantoja, showcases in song and dance particular aspects of the art and culture of his country which for four hundred years had reigned over the Philippines. And what better art form can give this current generation of Filipinos a vision of the Spanish soul than the indigenous music-drama called the zarzuela? And getting to know the zarzuela, we get to realize a part of the Spanish roots of our own Filipino cultural identity.

Ambassador Pantoja is a classic universal man of our time. His concept of the show takes a bow in the direction of the great Federico Garcia Lorca and his idea of drama which should appeal to all audiences, including peasants. It must be rendered "with uninhibited theatricality, must burst into song and dance and flare out in color."

To mount his stupendous production, Ambassador Pantoja has harnessed the combined talents of Spanish and Filipino artists: in addition to singer Benito and the lead dancers from Spain, coloratura soprano Rachelle Gerodias, tenor Jose Antonio Moreno de Torres, baritone Jorge Florenza, and bass baritone Ronaldo Villaruel Abarquez; The Philippine Normal University Chorale under the direction of Prof. Luzviminda Modelo; dancers from various troupes such as the Philippine Ballet Theater, U.P. Dance Company, Lines Dance Company, Footworks Dance Theater, Steps Dance Studio, Ballet Philippines, Chameleon Dance Company, U.E. Dance Troupe and Fundacion Centro Flamenco; renowned Spanish choreographer Alberto Portillo; rehearsal dance master Ida Beltran Lucila, lights and sound designer Gerry Fernandez and stage manager Gil Castillo; and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Jose Antonio Torres. All these individuals and groups have made a formidable statement for the cause of the zarzuela.

The Italians have their opera buffa, the Viennese their operetta and the Spaniards their zarzuela. This light dramatic-musical entertainment, which has the tang of sangria, has its precursor during the Renaissance in Spain – El Siglo de Oro – and the Baroque in the works of Lope de Vega (1562-1635) and Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681). While they wrote different types of plays from religious pageants to cloak-and-dagger thrillers, their most important contribution to world theater is the mass drama, a form that depicts the heroic struggle of peasants against their abusive landlords for which they have the support of their royal sovereign.

Before the sinking of the Spanish Armada by a storm in the English Channel, Spain was the most powerful country in Europe – and the richest. It was under the patronage of Ferdinand and Isabella that Columbus crossed the Atlantic and discovered the New World. Cortez conquered the Aztecs of Mexico and Pizarro the Incas of Peru. The gold of Montezuma and the silver of Atahualpa poured into the coffers of Spain. And Magellan crossed the Pacific in search of spices, landed on our shores, implanted the Cross and perished in the hands of the natives, but his men sailed on across the Indian Ocean back to their homeland.

The gradual decline of power through the years culminated in the defeat of Spain in the war with America, and the loss of Cuba and Philippine Islands. The last decades of the 19th century was a period when Spanish playwrights wrote to amuse their countrymen and, at the same time, caused them to assess their own selves. It was the great age of the zarzuela. The gods and goddesses, shepherd and nymphs of an earlier era have given way to characters from real life – peasants and fisher folk, vendors and servant girls – and their tales are told in the daily lingo of their class and their feelings are expressed in sentimental melodies that touch the heart. There are, to be sure, the timeless, ubiquitous characters of the love-lorn girl and the love-sick lad – and whatever comes between them: the color of her skin for she has the blood of a Moor, his wild gypsy manners; she is only a serving maid, he is away at war in Cuba; or a jealous deceitful rival who tries to lie his way to her heart. But at the end, the conflicts are overcome – thanks to the Virgin de los Remedios – and the lovers blissfully fall into each other’s arms. Even in the age of realism, romance lingers on.

This is the world of the zarzuela or rather fragments of it unveiled before an astonished audience. Flashing in vivid colors in authentic period and/or regional costumes complete with mantillas, headdresses and other accessories, the characters of the zarzuela are resurrected by stage magic. In an ever-changing kaleidoscope of the sights and sounds of the marketplace (Huesped del Sevillano), the fields during the harvest season (La Rosa del Azafran), the wedding feast (La Boda de Luis Alonso), the harbor (La Taberna del Puerto), the camp (Patria Chica) and the prairie.

Most impressive of all the numbers is that of the prairie (Goyescas). It opens with a tableau with the dancers in authentic garments – majas and swains – frozen in a stance against a rustic landscape from a famous masterpiece by the great artist, Francisco Goya. The music animates them to life in a peaceful country dance and as the tune ends, the dancers assume the same position as in the beginning, frozen into immobility as on the artist’s canvass.

Other dances from the Peninsulars are the jota, the seguidilla and the habanera, all familiar steps which we Indios have learned from our conquerors and absorbed into our own dance tradition. In these dances we discover the roots of our Castillian heritage; as in the Spanish zarzuela, we find the roots of the Filipino sarswela.

And what is soprano Gerodias’ number, "Ano Kaya ang Kapalaran," doing in this concert of zarzuela excerpts but to remind our generation of our heritage from our colonial past? When we look for the Filipino identity, we find that a generous portion of it – the Catholic faith, art and culture and customs – comes from our Spanish past.

¡Bravo Zarzuela! ¡Viva España!

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