At the end of the '60 and early '70 Spanish Television made this series dedicated to the Spanish Operettas: "Zarzuelas". I watch them in Puerto Rico hosted by Daniel Lugo. I accompanied my father, an enthusiast of "Zarzuelas" to watch this full collection that included among others, "La Canción del Olvido", "Los Bohemios" "Maruxa","La Verbena De la Paloma", "La del Manojo De Rosas", if my memory does not fail. They were professionally photographed in color, and filmed in 35mm for greater visual quality. Handsome Spanish actors dubbed professional singers to make a nice looking show. They show many folkloric ways of the Spanish life during the late XIX century and early XX. Mosto of them were filmed in studios but in some cases they use outdoor scenes of the wide an variety of sceneries in Spain. Notable the mountain scenes of Maruxa because it is a pastoral Opera. If they were on sale in DVD I'll bought them all.
2 Reviews
Why didn't José Sacristán play Toribio?
DwightFry14 November 2017
This is one of a series of zarzuela adaptations made for Spanish television in the late sixties, and the first of the bunch I have seen. I guess it's representative of the lot in being amusing and watchable but coming across as phony, since they cast screen actors and dubbed singing voices over them instead of using singing stage actors-singers, and it's also one of those screen productions in which a character sits in front of a piano, starts singing while pretending to play it, and out of nowhere comes a full orchestra that includes everything... except for a piano. If that kind of stuff is okay with you and you're musically inclined, you could do worse than watching this one.
However, there's a gigantic missed opportunity here: the potentially funniest and most memorable character is Toribio Clarinetti the street musician turned fake prince, and the cast includes the great José Sacristán, which if cast in that role would have easily stolen the picture and created something truly memorable with it. Unfortunately Sacristán is wasted in the comparatively dull role of the innkeeper while Toribio is played by one Antonio Martelo that I wasn't familiar with before and while he's not terrible he doesn't do much in the role either, plus he looks too old for the part. Since they're both non-singing characters, they could have easily switched roles for the viewer's benefit.
This is the only filming of this particular zarzuela so if one likes the genre it may be interesting, and also Rosanna Yanni looks gorgeous as the courtesan. Though a version with real singing actors would have been much preferable, for my tastes at least. 5/10.
However, there's a gigantic missed opportunity here: the potentially funniest and most memorable character is Toribio Clarinetti the street musician turned fake prince, and the cast includes the great José Sacristán, which if cast in that role would have easily stolen the picture and created something truly memorable with it. Unfortunately Sacristán is wasted in the comparatively dull role of the innkeeper while Toribio is played by one Antonio Martelo that I wasn't familiar with before and while he's not terrible he doesn't do much in the role either, plus he looks too old for the part. Since they're both non-singing characters, they could have easily switched roles for the viewer's benefit.
This is the only filming of this particular zarzuela so if one likes the genre it may be interesting, and also Rosanna Yanni looks gorgeous as the courtesan. Though a version with real singing actors would have been much preferable, for my tastes at least. 5/10.
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