Barbián with Rodrigo Cuevas

Live Concerts of modern Zarzuela interpretations

Barbián is a two-hour music theater show featuring Rodrigo Cuevas. Barbián has been performed at Veranos de la Villa 2019 in Madrid and the majestical Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid end of 2020. Composer Frank Merfort and I have made modern adaptations of classical Zarzuela songs.

Barbián

Between the market garden and cabaret, between the traditional and the cosmopolitan, this programme proposes, from a contemporary prism, a heterodox journey through the thousand and one faces of zarzuela, courtesy of Asturian artist Rodrigo Cuevas, who has been making waves in Spanish folklore and popular music for some time now.

Although zarzuela was primarily performed in the cities, it often borrows motifs and rhythms from the countryside, becoming the rural dream of those who have relocated to the city. The title ‘Barbián’ is a word that comes from the Roman word barbán, which means air, an  is used in Castilian Spanish to denote someone carefree, gallant and daring.

Press snippets

Mundo Clásico, 4 December 2020

Review concert Teatro de la Zarzuela (click to read in Spanish)

RTPE Asturias, 29 November 2020

Interview  (click to view in Spanish)

El Comercio, 30 August 2019

“Rodrigo Cuevas reinvents zarzuela in Madrid” (click to read in Spanish)

El País, 28 August 2019

” ‘Crazy’ shows that fuse genres” (click to read in Spanish)

La Vanguardia, 29 August 2019

“The electrozarzuela of Rodrigo Cuevas arrives at Veranos de la Villa with ‘Barbián’ ” (click to read in Spanish)