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M. de Falla,  El Retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Peter’s Puppet Show): Soloists, Orquesta-Escuela de la Sinfónica de Madrid, Conductor: Josep Vicent Teatro Real de Madrid 18.1.2009 (JMI)

New production Teatro Real with Barcelona’s Liceu, Bilbao’s  ABAO, Opera Oviedo, Valladolid’s Teatro Calderón and Sevilla’s Maestranza

Director: Enrique Lanz
Sets and Lighting: Alberto Rodríguez

Cast:

Don Quijote: Marc Canturri
Maese Pedro: Mikeldi Atxalandabaso
Trujumán: Olatz Saitúa

Within its current programme for children, the Teatro Real included this new production of one of the very few operatic works by Falla. This is a collaboration between many of the Spanish opera houses and it comes as a surprise to find how much easier is for them to work together for the children’s programme than it is during the normal season.

The production is in a way a tribute to Hermenegildo Lanz, director of puppets for the premiere of this opera at the Palace of the Princess de Polignac in Paris in 1923. The person in charge of the present production is  Enrique Lanz, a grandson of Hermenegildo, who follows on with the tradition of puppet theatre in his family.

The opera is presented as taking place in a marionette theatre, in which the adventures of Don Gayferos and his wife Melisendra take place. Large sized puppets attend the performance, and among them are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: after a series of misunderstandings, the destruction of the puppet theatre is brought about when Quixote once again confuses reality and fiction, believing that it is his beloved Dulcinea and not Melisendra who is in danger. The production seems to be more appropriate for adults than for children, despite the fact that the performance is offered for them.

The musical direction was the responsibility of Josep Vicent, who gave a good performance conducting the Orchestra-Escuela, which happily included a harpsichord, an important part of Falla's instrumentation which was played by no other than Wanda Landowska for the Paris premiere.

As the production was focussed on the puppet theatre, the singers sang from off stage. Among them, the best was Mikeldi Atxalandabaso as Maese Pedro. Marc Canturri was a Don Quixote without either particularly failings or brilliance and the character of Trujumán, Maese Pedro's young assistant was sung by Olatz Saitúa, whose voice was clearly amplified.

The theatre was full of families with children, but I had the impression that they did not enjoy themselves very much. I couldn’t hear any laughs from them during the performanc but at the end,  all of the artistes received warm applause.

José M Irurzun

<sup>For more information on this unusual opera see Wikipedia

Picture © Teatro Real Madrid

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