FULL Los dos ciegos (Barbieri) & Uné éducation manquée (Chabrier) Madrid 2015 Luis Alvarez, Ricardo Muñiz, Belén López-León

The development of the comic genres of musical theater culminated, in the last third of the 19th century, with the triumph of theater by the hour, a programming model consisting of the representation of a series of small-format pieces. It is considered that this theatrical system was inaugurated with The Two Blind Men, an interlude by Barbieri based on an operetta by Offenbach from which he even reuses one of the musical numbers. The French operetta was a source of inspiration for librettists and composers, who adapted numerous works to the Spanish context. Therefore, it makes particular sense that Barbieri’s hors d’oeuvre be staged alongside Chabrier’s operetta.

Based on an operetta by Offenbach, Barbieri’s interlude The Two Blind Men (1855) narrates the comical life of two rogues who, pretending to be blind, compete for handouts from passers-by. For its part, Chabrier’s operetta Une éducation manquée (1879) tells the story of a newly married couple and their quirky tutor, who strives to complete the truncated education of young people essential to their new life. In this production, the scene takes place in an old abandoned Madrid Metro station, where a curious mixture of characters forgotten in time coexist: disoriented travelers, street vendors, musicians and beggars.