Benamor - Schedule, Program & Tickets
Benamor
Operetta in three acts
Libretto by Antonio Paso and Ricardo González del Toro
Austrian premiere
Sultan Darío finally wants to marry off his sister Benamor. What neither of them realizes is that Darío is actually a woman, and Princess Benamor is a man. Their mother, Pantea, raised them both as the opposite sex, because according to ancient law, a firstborn girl must be killed just like a second-born boy. But now marriage-minded princes are arriving from near and far, and the gender swap threatens to be exposed – especially since Benamor is completely unwilling to conform to the expectations of a princess, and the Sultan develops a disturbing interest in one of the suitors...
Pablo Luna, born in 1879, was one of the most successful composers of zarzuelas, the Spanish form of operetta, and revues between 1900 and the time of the Spanish Civil War. His operetta Benamor premiered in Madrid in 1923 and, with its double gender reversal and numerous sexual and cultural references, is entirely in the spirit of the "wild" 1920s, a time of awakening in Spain as well. Similar to Franz Lehár in Vienna, Luna combines the traditional music of the zarzuela (for example, in the famous fire dance in the second act) with the fashionable dances of the shimmy and foxtrot to create a unique musical language. Director Christof Loy discovered Benamor at a performance in Madrid and will stage this rarely performed work for the first time in Vienna. An ensemble of experienced zarzuela performers will be on stage, led by the two rising opera stars Marina Monzó as Benamor and Federico Fiorio as Darío.
Sung in Spanish with German and English surtitles
Introductions 30 minutes before the start of each performance
Subject to change.
Libretto by Antonio Paso and Ricardo González del Toro
Austrian premiere
Sultan Darío finally wants to marry off his sister Benamor. What neither of them realizes is that Darío is actually a woman, and Princess Benamor is a man. Their mother, Pantea, raised them both as the opposite sex, because according to ancient law, a firstborn girl must be killed just like a second-born boy. But now marriage-minded princes are arriving from near and far, and the gender swap threatens to be exposed – especially since Benamor is completely unwilling to conform to the expectations of a princess, and the Sultan develops a disturbing interest in one of the suitors...
Pablo Luna, born in 1879, was one of the most successful composers of zarzuelas, the Spanish form of operetta, and revues between 1900 and the time of the Spanish Civil War. His operetta Benamor premiered in Madrid in 1923 and, with its double gender reversal and numerous sexual and cultural references, is entirely in the spirit of the "wild" 1920s, a time of awakening in Spain as well. Similar to Franz Lehár in Vienna, Luna combines the traditional music of the zarzuela (for example, in the famous fire dance in the second act) with the fashionable dances of the shimmy and foxtrot to create a unique musical language. Director Christof Loy discovered Benamor at a performance in Madrid and will stage this rarely performed work for the first time in Vienna. An ensemble of experienced zarzuela performers will be on stage, led by the two rising opera stars Marina Monzó as Benamor and Federico Fiorio as Darío.
Sung in Spanish with German and English surtitles
Introductions 30 minutes before the start of each performance
Subject to change.