Search - :: Caballero - El Duo de La Africana / Maria Rodriguez, Guillermo Orozco, Luis Alvarez, Trinidad Iglesias, Pedro Miguel Martinez, Lopez Cobos, Teatro Real, Madrid

A PARODY OF THE WORLD OF THE OPERA

FEDERICO BADA | BARCELONA, Spain | 08/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

""EL DUO DE LA AFRICANA"(THE DUET OF L'AFRICAINE)BY MANUEL FERNANDEZ(NOT FERNANDO)CABALLERO IS A PARODY OF THE WORLD OF THE OPERA THROUGH A CHEAP COMPANY OF (LET'S SAY) SUMMER STOCK OPERA. MY COPY IS SUBTITTLED IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH. IT DEALS WITH THE LOVES AND QUARRELS AMONG AN ANDALUSIAN SOPRANO OR MEZZOSOPRANO(RODRIGUEZ) AND AN ARAGONESE TENOR(OROZCO) WHO AT HIS TURN IS LOVED BY THE CRAZY DAUGHTER(IGLESIAS) OF THE CHIEF OF THE COMPANY(ALVAREZ). ALL OF THEM USE ITALIAN NAMES BECAUSE IT SOUNDS MORE ITALIANATE...THEY REHEARSE "L'AFRICAINE" BY MEYERBEER IN ITS ITALIAN VERSION:LA AFRICANA, BUT EVERYTHING GOES WRONG. THIS ZARZUELA BELONGS TO THE "GENERO CHICO"(MINOR WORKS WITH ONLY ONE ACT BUT WITH FABULOUS MUSIC) THOUGH IT HAS VERY BRILLIANT MUSICAL MOMENTS SPECIALLY "THE GOSSIP CHORUS" AND THE FAMOUS "DUET JOTA" WHICH HAS BEEN RECORDED AMONG OTHERS BY PILAR LORENGAR AND PLACIDO DOMINGO AND RECENTLY SUNG(WIENER STAATSOPER-OPERNBALL 2005) BY ELINA GARANCA AND MARCELO ALVAREZ(YOU CAN FIND IT AS AN EXTRA OF THEIR "WERTHER"). THIS LITTLE ZARZUELA OPENED ON 1893 AND HAS BEEN STAGED ALL THE YEARS EVER SINCE IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD, SPECIALLY IN THE SPANISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES."

An incomprehensible zarzuela

operafan | Athens, Greece | 08/09/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Beautiful production, nice costumes, right atmosphere and international guest stars from Spain (Jose Bros, Carlos Alvarez) but WARNING no subtitles, no summary."

No Subtitles

Dr. J. J. Kregarman | Denver, Colorado United States | 03/27/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Despite all claims on the DVD, booklet, and box, I have found no way to get the subtitle option on the onscreen menu to work and no way for the English subtitles (or Spanish ones) to be shown. This on 2 players. I do not know what the problem is."