EL BARBERILLO DE LAVAPIÉS
Francisco Asenjo Barbieri
Zarzuela in three acts
Libretto by Luis Mariano de Larra
Francisco Asenjo Barbieri and Luis Mariano de Larra position this town barber between the most deep-rooted tradition of the Iberian rhythms and the inevitable presence of the Italianising trend. He becomes the master of nobles with noble causes in an 18th-century Madrid that is struggling to expel the Italian Grimaldi from his control over the state and replace him with the Spaniard Floridablanca. The nobility is assisted by the people; Italy is moved aside by Spain through the weapons of the seguidilla and calesera, wielded by a barber who pays homage to Beaumarchais, while at the same time rejecting him.