La Verbena de la Paloma

Richard Trauber who made the English translation of this work writes: "Spanish operetta is technically older than any other European operetta form, taking its name from the Zarzuela Palace outside Madrid. Zarzuela went through various transformations over succeeding decades, taking on attributes of other European musical-theater forms: Italian grand and comic opera, French opera-comique, operetta, and even revue. Tomas Breton's The Festival of Our Lady of the Dove is widely regarded as perhaps the most perfect of all short zarzuelas. The music heard on this recording is exactly what was heard in 1894, with a very close English approximation to the original Spanish libretto (included). In addition, we have added a typical operetta finale to the work."