Lluís Pasqual brings a refreshing look to the zarzuela classic, while the musical director Óliver Díaz directs this masterpiece of Vives, in a co-production between the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the Liceu and the Opéra de Lausanne. 

Doña Francisquita, the absolute masterpiece of Amadeu Vives returns to the Gran Teatre del Liceu from November 10 to 17 with the staging of Lluís Pasqual, the replacement of Leo Castaldi and the musical direction of Óliver Díaz. Doña Francisquita arrives with an extraordinary cast headed by María José Moreno and Elena Sancho Pereg alternating as Francisquita, Celso Albelo and Antonio Lozano as Fernando and María José Suárez in the role of Doña Francisca, among others. We must highlight the special collaboration of actor Gonzalo de Castro and the castanets teacher Lucero Tena, artist of unmistakable style who has performed worldwide at the orders of great directors such as Lorin Maazel or Jesús López Cobos.

The co-production of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the Liceu and the Opéra de Lausanne arrives with the renewed look of the Catalan stage director Lluís Pasqual, who goes around the work proposing a set of mirrors in which time and its various historical epochs charge much importance. In his production, Pasqual evokes his own personal history remembering evenings of radio programs, vinyl records and theater. And, of course, his life as a theater director, moving Francisquita and his people to a recording room of the 40s, a television set of the 60s and a modern rehearsal room.

Óliver Diaz takes the baton from one of the brightest scores of the Spanish musical heritage and will feature the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. A score full of “turbulence, swings and voluptuousness” that stands out for musical moments as exceptional as the popular “Song of the Nightingale” starring Francisquita, Fernando and Cardona in the first act or the love duo between Francisquita and Fernando that concludes the plot of the work in the third act.

Doña Francisquita © Javier del Real

This lyrical comedy in three acts with music by Amadeu Vives and libretto by Federico Romero and Guillermo Fernández-Shaw is inspired discreet crush by Lope de Vega’s. It premiered at the Apollo Theater in Madrid in 1923, two months later he arrived at the Tívoli Theater in Barcelona but it took ten years to reach the Liceu. Structured in three acts, the plot focuses on a Madrid during Carnival and explains the story of Francisquita, a young girl in love with Fernando who is also wanted by a popular actress, Aurora. This classic of the big genre was represented at the Liceu for the last time on July 30, 2010, where it has been seen a total of 46 times.

The Gran Teatre del Liceu prepares a spectacular live season in cinemas on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its reopening. For the first time you can enjoy a zarzuela on the big screen and live thanks to the broadcast on November 12 of Doña Francisquita de Amadeu Vives. A total of 170 rooms throughout Spain will broadcast one of the most popular titles in the repertoire thanks to the co-production with RTVE and the collaboration of Digital Version, the leading operator in the national market and in Andorra in the distribution of alternative content for cinemas, theaters and auditoriums. In addition, 46 rooms around the world join the broadcast, which will be screened between November 11 and the summer of 2020 in countries such as China (15 rooms), Russia (14 rooms), Italy (7 rooms), Canada ( 5 rooms), Germany (2 rooms), Andorra (1 room), Austria (1 room) and the United States (1 room). The live season will also feature one of the best-known opera titles by all, Aida de Verdi, which will allow the public to enjoy the authentic hyperrealistic curtains of Mestres Cabanes on January 22, 2020.

RTVE

RTVE co-produces and performs this live broadcast in cinemas with the Liceu, which provides for an 8-chamber device, two in stalls, one in the pit, one in the amphitheater and 4 more in the boxes. In addition, the public will be able to enjoy the broadcast again on December 23 when RTVE broadcasts it on television nationwide. The state radio television group works closely with the Gran Teatre del Liceu in the promotion and dissemination of its music programming since they signed the agreement in March 2017. This agreement allows RTVE support the dissemination of the activities that organizes and promotes Liceu, as it did in the past with the project ‘Liceu a la fresco’.

Doña Francisquita © Javier del Real

The Liceu is one of the pioneer theaters worldwide in the broadcast of opera live in cinemas. Since the first broadcast of La traviata in 2001, hundreds of theaters around the world have been able to enjoy the best productions of the moment: Lucia di Lammermoor (December 2015), I Capuleti ei Montecchi (June 2016), Macbeth (October 2016), Rigoletto (April 2017), Un ballo in maschera (October 2017), Roméo et Juliette (February 2018), L’italiana in Algeri (December 2018) and La Gioconda (April 2019).

Digital version is exclusive distributor for Spain of The Royal Opera House in London and works with centers such as the Teatro Real de Madrid, the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the Prado Museum or the Gala-Dalí Foundation, among others. It offers the opera and ballet seasons of the world’s main theaters in cinemas, as well as rock concerts of mythical bands and current documentaries, musicals, concerts, plays, as well as recitals and galas of opera and zarzuela. It is present, in more than 200 national theaters, in the main international film and television markets (CinemaCon, CineEurope, MipCom, MIPTV, EFM, Avant Prèmiere) looking for great stories for the public to fall in love, either on the big screen or on your mobile device

You can check the list of cinemas and buy tickets at the following link: www.liceuincinemas.com