Tomás Bretón’s 1895 La Dolores is a full-blown opera, not a zarzuela, and its plot, characters, mood, and music could not belong to any other country. Bretón’s musical idiom is late-Romantic and he’s a fine composer; the opera’s acts build with a fine intensity, and he keeps the Spanish flavor alive throughout with dances and rhythms that are peculiarly Spanish. The plot–the opera really should be called “Everyone Loves Dolores”–concerns the eponymous heroine, who is a maid at an inn, and her suitors–Rojas, a boastful army sergeant, Melchior, a barber who claims to have been intimate with Dolores, Celemin and Patricio, two locals, and Lazaro, a theology student who is the nephew of the Innkeeper. At one point Lazaro saves the braggart Rojas from being gored (offstage) by a bull, and in the opera’s final scene, he kills Melchior, who has cornered Dolores in her room. Dolores claims she killed Melchior (therefore exhibiting her love for Lazaro), but he takes the blame: “No, no–he was an evil man. I shall stay and answer for his death!”
Well. The purple-passion-filled melodrama manages somehow to work–we get swept up in it. And there’s plenty of excellent music. At the end of the first act, there is a musical celebration and several characters sing of their love for their region, Aragon, and for Dolores, though Melchior insults her honor. All the while a lively jota and Pasacalle are played and sung, and the interweaving of the drama and local color is masterful. The last act contains a good duet for Lazaro and Dolores.
The performances are quite good, but there are reservations. Matos is a good, colorful singer, but my feeling is that since Dolores is so easy to fall in love with, so should her voice be. The role could have used Victoria de los Angeles’ combination of earthiness and purity. The Melchior and Rojas are suitably rough bass-baritones, but Stefano Palatchi (Rojas) is just a bit too rough. Tito Beltran makes the most of the second tenor role of Celemin, but the role of Lazaro goes to Placido Domingo, who is in good, generalized-ardency voice and demeanor. An offstage voice in act one belonging to a tenor named Santiago Calderon is quite beautiful, and the rest of the cast is good. Ros Marba leads a lively, completely idiomatic performance. This is a worthy addition to the catalog.
