| | |  | LATIN MUSIC | Home » » Tomás Bretón: La Verbena de La Paloma | | | | | | | Description: | | Bretón's celebrated zarzuela appears for the first time on international DVD. Zarzuela is the national music theatre of Spain, enduringly popular across Spain and the Americas. This production is a witty, modern staging, with an all-Spanish cast. Bretón's entertaining tale of life, love and revelry set in a busy Spanish apartment block had instantaneous and huge success when first premiered in 1894, and it has since been performed countless times across the Spanishspeaking world. Filmed at Madrid's new Festival de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, this version was based on a successful production originally mounted in 2002 by the Hebbel Theater in Berlin. DVD Extra: Making of...documentary, including interviews with director Marina Bollaín and conductor Miguel Roa. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| José Antonio López, Amparo Navarro, María José Suárez, David Rubiera, Emilio Sánchez | | Director:
| Marina Bollaín | | Format:
| AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language:
| Spanish | | Subtitle:
| English, French, German, Spanish | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Decca | | Run Time:
| 89 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| June 10, 2008 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 7 reviews |
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| $12.95 | Used
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- Mint | | | $25.74 | New | | | $25.74 | Used
- Mint | | | $26.40 | New | | | $27.61 | New | | | $28.65 | New | | | $28.65 | New | | | $33.00 | New | | | $33.92 | New | | | $119.99 | New | |
| New | |
| $15.73 | New | | | $15.74 | New | | | $16.93 | New | | | $16.93 | New | | | $17.76 | New | | | $19.64 | New | | | $22.43 | New | | | $22.46 | New | | | $22.47 | New | | | $22.85 | New | | | $23.36 | New | | | $23.46 | New | | | $24.80 | New | | | $25.74 | New | | | $26.40 | New | | | $27.61 | New | | | $28.65 | New | | | $28.65 | New | | | $33.00 | New | | | $33.92 | New | | | $119.99 | New | |
| Used | |
| $12.95 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $25.73 | Used
- Mint | | | $25.74 | Used
- Mint | |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 7 customer reviews )
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39 of 47 found the following review helpful:
 Don Tomás Bretón deserves much betterJul 12, 2008
By Marcos
Yesterday, I had the misfortune of renting this DVD from Netflix. The first thing I found odd was the title Noche de verano en La Verbena de la Paloma, as there is no such work in the history of Spanish Zarzuela. There is however a LA VERBENA DE LA PALOMA, which happens to be the crown jewel of the Género Chico, and which has nothing to do with the travesty presented here. But I was literally thrown out of my seat as the curtain opened on this aberrant production to reveal a large cubicle on stage with smaller cubicles within it (see DVD cover). This is nothing new. The wonderfully talented Gower Champion did it on Broadway in 1960 in Bye, Bye Birdie. These cubicles contained an array of characters and settings such as a laundromat, a roof, a beauty parlor, and a bar. For anyone not familiar with La Verbena de la Paloma I will interject here that the original takes place in Madrid at the end of the 19th Century, way before the advent of laundromats or washing machines in Spain. The stage director and concocter of this travesty, one Marina Bollaín, who is totally unknown to me, has decided that this masterpiece works better if she updates the action to 2008. The shenanigans begin with a spirited aerobic session by the company to the tune of Por Ser La Vírgen de la Paloma. They are all dressed in ridiculous versions of Almodovariana. The sets are also Almodóvar inspired, but neither the sets nor the costumes have that wonderful, magical, and surreal touch Almodóvar manages to impart to his work. In Ms. Bollaín's hands the Almodóvar touch becomes plain ugly, illogical and distasteful. Absolutely no one dresses like this modern day Spain. This is not funny, this is sad, and so far not very original as Ms. Bollaín has already freely borrowed from Gower Champion and Pedro Almodóvar. Moving on we meet the character of Don Hilarión who in the original is a very old rogue but who here is a leather wearing, long haired man in his thirties and who, to the viewer's dismay, proceeds to shed his clothing and regale us with his over hirsute, overweight torso, splendidly graced with two very plush, very ample breasts. He then gets into a bathtub and begins to rub his summits with two adorable yellow rubber duckies while he sings his Coplas, by the end of which, his self pleasuring has moved from his breasts to his genitals. Disgusting! The Tía Antonia of the original is here Tío Antonio and Ms Bollaín has made him an androgynous hairdresser, thus the beauty parlor set. He sings a song in Gallician, which, to my knowledge is not by composer Bretón and which has nothing to do with the plot of this zarzuela. Ms. Bollaín has also chosen to add to the work an intermezzo that I also doubt very much is by Bretón. This intermezzo cuts brusquely from the live performance and takes us into video footage of a real verbena in Lavapiés complete with assorted midgets, people dancing in the streets and the sad spectacle of a bull being victory-dragged through the ring after having been assassinated by the bullfighter. The Spaniards refer to this barbarism as tauromaquia, I refer to it as deliberate animal cruelty of the vilest kind. From this horrific video we cut back to the live performance where Ms. Bollaín has taken us from Bretón's wonderful music to the shoddy hits of today like La Bomba and a flamenco tinged rap number, plus the old Antonio Machín bolero Dos Gardenias Para Tí. All hell breaks loose at the celebration and the protagonists end up on the floor having simulated sex. The aerobics choreography is reprised as Por Ser La Vírgen de la Paloma finally brings down the curtain for good on this monstrosity. To all foreigners who are not familiar with this work I stress here in capital letters THIS IS NOT LA VERBENA DE LA PALOMA. This is a sick mind's idea of revising a work that needs no revising because it is a masterpiece. This is like setting Madama Butterfly in Siberia or making Aida an Eskimo or Carmen a Martian. Ms. Bollaín is a Spanish woman who disrespects and defiles the work of her compatriot Don Tomás Bretón who gave Spain some of the most beautiful music ever created for its lyric stage. She is a Spanish woman corrupting, tainting and clouding a work of art, and belittling it for world consumption when she should be displaying proudly and globally the riches of her culture and heritage. This is a woman who should be tarred and feathered for her utter arrogance in thinking that her ideas are better than what the composer and librettist of this work originally wrote and intended. By purchasing this DVD you help ensure that "the age of the stage director continues". Do not buy this DVD. Do not rent it. Let's bring back "the age of the composer". Let's respect these works and do them as they were meant to be done. Let not have any more Nazi Toscas, or any more rubber duckie Verbenas.
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 UnconvincingNov 10, 2008
By A. Lupu
"A. Lupu"
The adaptation to modern times of this zarzuela is unconvincing. The cubicles might have worked for the stage, but they don't work for the DVD version and absolutely distract from the music. At some points it is difficult to understand who is who and who is talking (or singing). I don't object the time adaptation per se, but this one does not enhance this masterpiece, on the contrary it takes away the essence of it, it makes following the plot and sensing the music difficult. In addition, the sound production is flat and at some points very week and confusing. In summary, not a good DVD to enjoy a zarzuela Spaniards are so proud of.
14 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 Enjoyable Modern Take on a Madrid ClassicJul 24, 2008
By Randy Buck
I never quite understand the uproar when a classic play or opera gets a radical rethinking in a new production; after all, setting MACBETH in the contemporary Middle East, or LA TRAVIATA in WWII France, to take two examples I've recently seen, doesn't erase the memory of past productions or irrevocably defile the original material. Sometimes the changes serve to further illumine the piece's inherent ideas, sometimes not. Either way, the sun comes up the next morning, and the material in question's still doing just fine, too. That said, unlike the previous reviewer here (who's vastly more knowledgeable about zarzuela than I'll ever be), I found much to enjoy in this revamping of LA VERBENA DE LA PALOMA. The production's brash, funny, and colorful (not nearly as semi-pornographic or tasteless as it seems to have struck some), with the stylized apartment building set making a sensible substitution for the original's street. The modernizations don't obscure the cast's considerable vocal chops and acting ability; they do create a vibrant, believable setting to bring this material to a contemporary audience. There's value in museum reproductions of historical material, no question, but there's room, too, for new treatments of classic works. This DVD may not be the ideal introduction for a serious scholar of the form, but it provided this viewer a melodic, enjoyable taste of these unforgettable melodies -- and it's made me curious enough to seek out the original for further study. As Judy Holliday plaintively asked, "Is it a crime?" Recommended (although perhaps for Anglos only....)
6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Indeed a Travesty of a MasterpieceApr 15, 2009
By Pedro J. Quintanilla
[...] I could not have written a better and more accurate description of this assassination of a masterpiece, of perhaps the best zarzuela that ever was. What a pity that better productions, of which you can see parts on You Tube (and which were taped live at Madrid theaters) have not been produced on DVD, productions that completely respect the composer's work. A masterpiece, as La verbena is, neeeds NO modern adaptation, just as Puccini and Verdi and Mozart need no idiotic producer as this woman is to have the nerve and idiocy of changing and "adapting" such perfect works of art. [...]
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Too modern for my tasteJun 24, 2010
By Alex Canton-Dutari
This Zarzuela is a Spanish classic. And I did not appreciate the final sequence that included a nightclubish act with modern music. I would deffinitely not recommend this item to a newcomer to the Zarzuela. Stick to the original Breton's formula.
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