The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra's musicians complete the cast in this show in Spanish and will also be on stage on Thursday and Saturday this week.

 

The documentary opera María Moliner opens tomorrow (Tuesday 17) the lyrical season at the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín. The remaining shows take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Symphonic Hall on Thursday (19th) and Saturday (21st). This Spanish show pays tribute to the lexicographer who wrote the Diccionario de uso del español (1966)  (Dictionary of the use of Spanish, 1966). It will bring together 63 artists on stage between soloists, choir members, and actors. The cast is completed with the members of the Sinfónica de Tenerife (Tenerife Symphony Orchestra). The tickets for this show are available starting at €20, except for the audience under the age of 30 who will pay €5.

María Moliner is produced by the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. It was premiered in 2016, and has also been staged in Oviedo and Mallorca. This opera in two acts and ten scenes with a libretto by Lucía Vilanova recounts the life of María Moliner, a lexicographer who achieved the feat of single-handedly producing a dictionary at home whose substance showed up in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.

The show pays tribute to María Moliner, one of the most fascinating Spanish women of the 20th century, who tirelessly wrote on her Olivetti Pluma 22 the definitions for her dictionary. It shows the adversity she had to fight until she managed to edit and publish it after overcoming the obstacles of being a woman. The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) was produced by 46 people over two centuries, and María Moliner did it alone for over 15 years. Even according to Gabriel García Márquez, it was also the most complete, useful and fun dictionary of the Spanish language, more than twice the length of that of the Academy.

The stage director and set designer of this opera is Paco Azorín, who prompted the project from the very beginning. Azorín’s team, which has already been working for weeks at the Auditorium, is completed by Carlos Martos in charge of stage movement and choreography, Pedro Yagüe on lighting, Pedro Chamizo on audiovisual design and Juan Sebastián Domínguez on costume changes. The costumes were designed by María Araujo, who passed away a little over three years ago.

Víctor Pablo Pérez will conduct the Sinfónica de Tenerife, which will be accompanied by the 40 voices of the Opera of Tenerife-Intermezzo Resident Choir. The mezzo-soprano María José Montiel will play the leading role in this history, María Moliner. The baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez from Huelva will play the husband of the writer, the academic Fernando Ramón y Ferrando. The soprano Anna Cabrera will sing the roles of the inspector from the Spanish University Union (SEU) and Carmen Conde and the baritone Pablo Gálvez from Granada will play the linotypist Goyanes.

In addition, Tenerife-born Candelaria González will play Emilia Pardo Bazán, while Gran Canarian mezzo-sopranos Silvia Zorita and Blanca Valido will be Isidra Guzmán y de la Cerda and Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, respectively. The cast is completed by the bass-baritone Simón Orfila as the sought-after seat B of the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy), the tenor Joan Laínez as Almanaque I, the baritone César Méndez as Almanaque II and the bass-baritone Abraham García as Almanaque III.

On the other hand, this production has an extensive cast of actresses and actors from the islands: María Salazar, Romina R. Medina, Cristina Hernández, Elisa Cano, Melany Gabarre, Sheila Rodríguez, Niria Rodríguez, Selene Rodríguez, Adriana Isabel Cortés, Alba Carbajal, Daniel Sanginés and Saulo Trujillo.

The tickets are available on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium's box office or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. There are special discounts for students, unemployed, large families, and groups. Subscriptions for this season can still be purchased from 88 euros (20 euros for the audience under 30 years of age) until 5:00 p.m. the day of the first performance, in the same sales channels.