Teatro de la Zarzuela

Operetta in two acts

Music by PABLO SOROZÁBAL
Libretto by Emilio González del Castillo and Manuel Martí Alonso
Worldpremiered at Teatro Victoria in Barcelona, the 27th of January, 1931
Una producción del Teatro Arriaga de Bilbao, coproducida por el Teatro Campoamor de Oviedo, el Teatro Calderón de Valladolid y el Teatro Español de Madrid

Katiuska is the first work for the stage that Pablo Sorozábal composed, as the composer turned from symphonic to lyrical music. His talent, not just for orchestras and melodies, but also for the stage, made him the focal point of the last period in the history of the Zarzuela. The subtlety of the music stands out from the very first scene, with elegant orchestration, good concertantes, intense and varied romances, as well as a collection of the dance numbers and comic or exotic numbers so characteristic of the operetta genre.
The work shows a clear interest in telling a simple story set against the background of an episode in the history of Russia, but without delving too deeply into its complicated twists and turns. Emilio Sagi, the stage director, presents the story as an exercise in escapism for the audience of the time, in the face of the harsh reality. His intention, to produce a Katiuska which is “cinematic and nostalgic” and “embodies those grey years” of the 1917 Revolution, shut into a gigantic golden frame against a countryside in ruins; the effect of all this is a series of framed scenes of great expressiveness.