Rosa la pantalonera (1939)
Genre: Sainete in two acts.
Text: Pablo LLabrés and José López de Lerena.
Music: Francisco Alonso.
Premiere: September 22, 1939, at Teatro Príncipe, San Sebastián.
Performers of the premiere: Maruja Vallojera, Ángela Navalón, Ramona Galindo, María Luisa Montero, Pepita Moncayo, Luis Ballester, Fernando Heras, José Caballero, Vicente Gómez Bur, Manuel Pozón, Dimas Alonso.
Synopsis: Rosa, an orphan, lives with her Uncle and Aunt, León and Salud. Salud wants Rosa to marry her son, Matthew, but her father prefers Lola, daughter of Lord Primi, who wants to become a film actress .
On the other hand, Paco, Rosa’s brother, who is a rogue, wants to marry her off to Zenón, who is the coach of León and Mateo, who do wrestling. To make matters worse, Rosa is in love with Rafael, who when seeing her with Paco feels jealous because he does not know that he is her brother.
Mateo, who is very depressed, and Lola, have been left in a neighborhood cinema to take their own lives, but it is only he who takes the whole bottle of poison … which turns out to be cazalla…an aniseed flavoured spirit thus it all culminates, in a monumental drunkenness.
Relations between Rafael and Rosa are not going well. Paco shows up to get money from his sister, who has to pawn her Manila shawl. Rafael, who has seen them together, squares up to Rosa calling her “pantalonera”. Meanwhile, Mateo recovers and declares that he does not want to marry Rosa.
Set in Madrid, at the time of the premiere, “Rosa la pantalonera”, is a sainete, the classic style, where the love affairs of the characters intertwine and conclude with the classic happy ending. Even Alonso himself declared, in a Valencian newspaper, on the occasion of the premiere in the Teatro Apolo of that city: “Rosa, la pantalonera, is a sainete from Madrid about contemporary personalities, the original book was a satisfying read so I wrote it because I saw in the potential for a funny dialogue. I treated the score with the same affection I always do, because I think that the sainete, a genre so Spanish, has given so much success to our theater, that it should never die “.
The work contains a lot of good music, such as “Pasacalle de la pantaloneras”, a “chotis castizo”, the “Romanza de Rosa”, a habanera rhythm, a nice mazurka, a “Dúo entre Rosa y Rafael”, a “Romanza de Rafael”, entitled “Matoncillo de flores”, and a “comic duo”, which is a fine parody of “E lucevan le stele”, from Tosca de Puccini, and the macabre Dance, of Saint-Saens, that goes by the title of “Goodbye to Life”.
Musical numbers:
Act I:
1. Habanera “Si quieres que yo te quiera”.
2. Pasacalle “Tienen los pantalones un atractivo”.
3. Dúo de Rosita y Rafael “Quiero que tu seas todo para mi”.
4. Mazurka “Soy el bisonte”.
5. Romanza de Rosita “Ni siquiera lo puedo pensar” y final orquestal del acto I.
Act II:
6. Preludio y dúo cómico “Adiós a la vida”.
7. Romanza de Rafael “Mantoncitos de flecos”.
8. Romanza de María de la O “Deja ya de trabajá…..Ay gitanilla de Granada”.
9. Intermedio orquestal.
10. Chotis “Es en el chotis el Miss Mateo”.
Discography:
1939 Columbia/Blue Moon. – Francisco Alonso conducts Orquesta Sinfónica y Coros del Teatro Pavón and Matilde Vázquez, Alfredo Muelas, Manuel Hernández, Pepita Huerta, Julio Nadal, L. Vellido, M. Pradas, J. Eguiluz and E. Ester sing.