Experience the beauty of Spanish music theater featuring tenor Enrique Viana, one of the leading men in Spanish zarzuela, and Spanish pianist Daniel Oyarzabal in the performance  “Romantico Enrique Viana” (The Unending Passion of the Zarzuela) on June 11,  8 p.m., at the Little Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The event is open to the public and presented in collaboration with the CCP, the Embassy of Spain and Instituto Cervantes de Manila.

The show is a recital leading audiences through the zarzuela and Spanish culture in the 19th- and 20th-century theaters. Through illustrative productions, anecdotes and brief remarks on the lyrical genre, Enrique Viana and Daniel Oyarzabal will approach the attendants to the world of Spanish zarzuela.

Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance. The zarzuela was introduced to Manila in 1879 or 1880 with a performance of Jugar con fuego (“Play with Fire”) by the troupe of Dario de Cespedes.

In the following years, more groups arrived, which presented the zarzuela in other areas such as Iloilo, Cebu, Pampanga and Bicol. Inspired by this new “enlightened” form, Filipinos soon created their own original sarswela in other dialects.

Born in Madrid, Enrique Viana studied singing at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and later took extensive studies in Barcelona, Milan, Siena, Rome and Paris.

He specializes in the bel canto repertoire, and in some French romantic authors. On the operatic stage, Viana  performed as the Duke in “Rigoletto”; Alfredo in “La Traviata”;  Fenton in “Falstaff”; D. Basilio in “The Marriage of Figaro”; Ernesto in “Don Pasqual”; and Tonio in “La Fille du Regiment; Count Almaviva in “The Barber of Seville”; Ramiro in “La Cenerentola.”

As soloist with leading roles in oratorios, concerts and operas, Enrique has performed at festivals, and theaters in the United States, France, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Canada, China, Korea, Philippines, Argentina, Cuba, Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela, Bulgaria, Egypt, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Hungary. As a singing teacher and lecturer, he has given courses and lectures in 20 universities in Spain and Latin America.

Call Instituto Cervantes at 5261485, and CCP at 8321125 loc.1601.