Zarzuela is a Spanish musical and dramatic style that mixes spoken dialogue with singing. The singing parts include operatic songs, popular music, and dances. The origin of the name is unclear, but some believe it comes from the Palace of Zarzuela, near Madrid. This palace was named after the brambles (zarzas) that grew there.

There are two main types of zarzuela: Baroque zarzuela (about 1630–1750), the earliest form, and Romantic zarzuela (about 1850–1950). Romantic zarzuelas can be divided into two main categories, género grande and género chico, though other types also exist.

Zarzuela spread to Spanish territories and many Spanish-speaking countries, such as Cuba, where it developed its own traditions. It is also popular in the Philippines, where it is sometimes called sarswela or sarsuela. In Spain, other regional versions include the Basque zartzuela and the Catalan sarsuela.

A type of musical play similar to a masque existed in Spain as early as the time of Juan del Encina. Zarzuela was unique because it combined music and drama, making the songs part of the story. It included dances, group songs, and solo or group performances, all accompanied by an orchestra.

Baroquezarzuela

In 1657 at the Royal Palace of El Prado, King Philip IV of Spain, Queen Mariana, and their court watched the first performance of a new comedy written by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. The play, titled El Laurel de Apolo (The Laurels of Apollo), included music by Juan Hidalgo de Polanco. El Laurel de Apolo is traditionally seen as the beginning of a new musical style called La Zarzuela.

This work, like Calderón de la Barca’s earlier play El golfo de las sirenas (The Sirens' Gulf, 1657), combined stories from mythology with operatic songs, popular music, and dance. The characters in these early zarzuelas included gods, mythical beings, and simple, countryside-like figures. Another example of this style is Antonio de Literes’ Acis y Galatea (1708). Unlike some operas, these musical plays often included spoken parts, which were written in verse.

Italian influence

In 18th-century Bourbon Spain, Italian artistic styles were very popular in the arts, including Italian opera. Zarzuela, which was still written with Spanish words, changed to follow the Italian trend. During King Charles III's rule, political issues led to revolts against his Italian advisors; these events were shown in plays. The older style of zarzuela became less popular, but Spanish traditions remained in shorter works, such as the single-scene tonadilla (or intermezzo). Ramón de la Cruz was the best-known writer of these shorter works. Musicians like Antonio Rodríguez de Hita were skilled in creating shorter pieces, though he also wrote a full zarzuela with de la Cruz called Las segadoras de Vallecas (The Reapers of Vallecas, 1768). José Castel was one of many composers who wrote music for the Teatro del Príncipe.

19th century

In the 1850s and 1860s, a group of patriotic writers and composers, led by Francisco Barbieri and Joaquín Gaztambide, worked to bring back the zarzuela style. They believed this form of music and theater could help Spanish culture become more independent from French and Italian musical influences. The zarzuela still used the same elements: sung solos and choruses, mixed with spoken scenes and comedic songs, dances, and group performances. Many productions included costume dramas and reflected regional differences. The written texts, or librettos, often used Spanish expressions and common language, even though some were based on French stories.

The zarzuelas of this time included regional slang, such as the speech of Madrid’s castizos. Sometimes, a work became popular because of one or more songs that audiences loved. Although some changes occurred, the basic structure of the zarzuela remained the same: scenes with dialogue, songs, choruses, and comic scenes performed by two actor-singers. The most famous works from this period were Barbieri’s Pan y toros and Gaztambide’s El juramento. Another important composer from this time was Emilio Arrieta.

Romanticzarzuela

After the Glorious Revolution of 1868, the country faced serious economic problems, which affected theatre. People could not afford expensive tickets for large, elaborate productions, so new types of theatre called Teatros Variedades ("variety theatres") appeared in Madrid. These theatres offered cheaper tickets for short plays called sainetes, which became very popular. This style of theatre, called "theatre of an hour," was quickly adopted by composers of zarzuela music. Short zarzuelas with one act were called género chico ("little genre"), while longer zarzuelas with three acts, lasting up to four hours, were called género grande ("grand genre").

The género grande continued to be performed at the Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid, which was founded in the 1850s by Barbieri and his friends. A newer theatre, the Apolo, opened in 1873. At first, it tried to stage género grande performances, but it later changed to focus on the more popular género chico due to audience preferences and economic conditions by the late 1870s.

Music from this time included full operatic arias (romanzas), popular songs, and dialogue ranging from high poetic drama to humorous, everyday characters. Many other types of zarzuela existed between the two main genres, with different styles of music and drama.

Many of the most famous zarzuelas were written in the 1880s and 1890s. Felipe Pérez y González’s zarzuela La Gran Vía (1886) is considered a masterpiece of the género chico genre. The form continued to change with new influences in theatre until the early 20th century. However, during the Spanish Civil War, zarzuela declined in popularity. The last romantic zarzuelas were written in the 1950s.

Barbieri composed the influential género grande zarzuela El barberillo de Lavapiés. Federico Chueca, Barbieri’s student, was a leading figure of género chico. His zarzuela La gran vía (written with Joaquín Valverde Durán) was widely admired in Spain and Europe.

José Serrano, who followed Chueca’s musical style, wrote many short, one-act género chico zarzuelas, such as La canción del olvido, Alma de dios, Los claveles, and La dolorosa. These works connected the simpler style of género chico to the more complex zarzuelas of the 20th century.

Like romantic zarzuela, many of these works included scenes from everyday life, such as popular customs, festivals, and the speech of people from poor areas of Madrid. They also often included strong social criticism and reflected political issues of the time.

20th century

From about 1900, the term "género ínfimo" ("low genre") was created to describe a new type of entertainment connected to revue-style musical comedies. These musical works were similar to the "género chico" zarzuela but included more social criticism, scenes with sexual themes, and many words with double meanings. One well-known example from this time is La corte de Faraón (1910), written by Vicente Lleó, which was based on the French operetta Madame Putiphar.

In the second decade of the 1900s, the influence of Viennese operettas and English composers like Lionel Monckton, who followed Sullivan, became noticeable in works such as Molinos de viento and El asombro de Damasco (both by Pablo Luna). Later, the Spanish tradition of great acts returned in Doña Francisquita (1923) by Amadeu Vives. During the 1930s, the zarzuela remained popular, thanks to composers like Pablo Sorozábal, who gave it new life as a way to comment on society and politics, Federico Moreno Torroba, and Francisco Alonso.

However, the Spanish Civil War caused the genre to decline. After World War II, the zarzuela as a live performance nearly disappeared. There were no new writers, and older works were not updated. Since the 1950s, no major new zarzuela pieces have been created. Producing existing works is expensive, and many classic performances have happened only rarely in recent years.

The genre has regained interest in Spain and other places. Younger people, in particular, have enjoyed its musical style and theatrical performances from the 1940s and 1950s. In 1978, Spanish radio and television dedicated time to zarzuela, including a popular series by TVE called Antología de la zarzuela ("Zarzuela Anthology"), which used recordings from the 1940s and 1950s. Earlier, producer José Tamayo created a stage show with the same name, which introduced zarzuela pieces to audiences during national and international tours.

Zarzuelain Catalonia

The zarzuela tradition thrived in Madrid and other Spanish cities, but Catalonia created its own version of zarzuela, with scripts written in Catalan. The atmosphere, stories, and music were very different from the Madrid style, as the Catalan zarzuela aimed to appeal to the middle class. Over time, the Catalan zarzuela became known as "teatre líric català" ("Catalan lyric theater"), developing its own unique identity. This style included modernist composers and lyricists, such as Enric Granados and Enric Morera.

In the late 1800s, as modernisme began to grow, Amadeu Vives, a student of Felip Pedrell, became an important figure in Barcelona. He helped found the Orfeó Català in 1891, along with Lluís Millet. Although his work was successful for many years, Vives eventually moved to Madrid, where zarzuela was more popular. He became one of the most important composers of zarzuela, creating famous works like Doña Francisquita.

Zarzuelain Cuba and Mexico

In Cuba, the afrocubanismo zarzuelas by Ernesto Lecuona (María la O; El cafetal), Eliseo Grenet (La virgen morena), and Gonzalo Roig (Cecilia Valdés, inspired by a classic novel by Cirilo Villaverde) show a short but important time in Cuba’s history when politics and culture were significant. These works and others focused on the struggles of mulata women and other Black people in lower social classes in Cuban society. Rita Montaner was a famous performer in many of these productions.

Mexico also had its own zarzuela traditions. An example is Carlo Curti’s La cuarta plana, which featured Esperanza Iris as a performer.

Zarzuelain the Philippines

In the Philippines, the Zarzuela Musical Theatre has been adapted by Filipinos to fit their own culture, especially in cities. The Spanish introduced the theatre in 1878, even though the Philippines had been part of the Spanish Empire since the 1500s. At first, only Spanish people performed the plays. By 1880, most of the actors and writers were Filipinos, including José Rizal, a national hero who loved the play. Later, local languages replaced Spanish in performances, and the theatre included influences from many cultures across the Philippines.

When the United States took control of the Philippines in the early 1900s, humor from the moro-moro play was added to the Philippine zarzuela, making it different from the traditional Spanish version. Filipinos used the theatre to show their desire for freedom and to protest against discrimination and colonial rule. The plays often ended with Filipinos defeating the Spanish and Americans. Because of the political messages in the plays, American rulers arrested some performers and writers, even closing some zarzuela groups.

In the 1920s, movies became popular, and zarzuela performances spread to rural areas, making it harder for the Americans to stop them. Over time, the Philippine zarzuela became a type of comedy that reflected Filipino traditions. In 2011, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts recognized zarzuela as an important cultural tradition in the Philippines, which could be nominated for UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage. In 2012, the Philippine government worked with UNESCO to create plans to protect and preserve the Philippine zarzuela. UNESCO has named the Philippine zarzuela the national theatre and opera of the Philippines.

Recordedzarzuela

Starting in 1950, zarzuela music became more popular through a series of LP recordings produced by companies like EMI and Hispavox, which were sold worldwide. A series created by the Alhambra company of Madrid, mostly led by the famous Spanish conductor Ataulfo Argenta, was especially successful. These recordings included many singers who later became well-known, such as Teresa Berganza, Alfredo Kraus, and Pilar Lorengar, as well as later performers like Montserrat Caballé and Plácido Domingo. Other singers, including Ana María Iriarte, Inés Ribadeneira, Toñy Rosado, Carlos Munguía, Renato Cesari, and others, also contributed their voices to the recordings. Choirs such as Orfeón Donostiarra and the Singers' Choir of Madrid helped improve the quality of the music. After Argenta passed away, other conductors like Indalecio Cisneros and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos continued his work. Some recordings were also conducted by the composers themselves, such as Pablo Sorozábal and Federico Moreno Torroba. Many famous singers, including Victoria de los Ángeles, Montserrat Caballé, Juan Diego Flórez, and Lisette Oropesa, have recorded albums of zarzuela songs and arias.

Today, many zarzuela performances are available on DVD and Blu-ray disc. In March 2009, EuroArts released a Blu-ray disc of a concert titled Amor, Vida de Mi Vida, recorded in August 2007 by Plácido Domingo and Ana María Martínez, with the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg led by Jesús López-Cobos. In April 2009, BBC/Opus Arte released a Blu-ray disc of a July 2006 performance of Luisa Fernanda by Federico Moreno Torroba, featuring Plácido Domingo and Nancy Herrera, recorded at the Teatro Real de Madrid with Jesús López-Cobos conducting.

In the United States, the Jarvis Conservatory of Napa, California, produced several full zarzuela performances between 1996 and 2005. These were later released on DVD and online. The series includes La dolorosa; La Gran Via; Luisa Fernanda; La verbena de la Paloma; La Rosa del Azafrán; La revoltosa; Agua, Azucarillos y Aguardiente; Doña Francisquita; Gigantes y Cabezudos; La alegría de la huerta; La chulapona; Luis Alonso (Giménez, 1896); and El barberillo de Lavapiés.