La tapada del Retiro, Sinfonía, for symphony orchestra

La tapada del Retiro was performed for the first time at the Teatre del Liceu on February 26, 1853, as part of the theater’s opera season. We must situate the gestation of the work in a very particular context within the Barcelona music scene. The press at the time noted that the theater’s management had encouraged the creation of zarzuelas in order to recover financially from the poor reception of Verdi’s opera Ernani. Manent was a composer and chapel master, but until two years earlier, he had been a member of the Teatre del Liceu orchestra.

At that time, the Italian style was still the favorite of audiences. This style was very close to Manent’s heart, not only because of his work as a double bass player in the opera theater, but also because of the very important Italian operatic tradition he had experienced in Menorca. It is also likely that he witnessed the first performances of zarzuelas in Barcelona. Thus, the combination of the Italian style and the influence of Spanish opera from Madrid marked the composer’s starting point in the zarzuela genre.