La Rosa de Azafrán is one of the most performed works in the repertoire of zarzuelas and without doubt one of Jacinto Guerrero’s masterworks. This new edition is base on the original score and its reduction for voice and piano, and has been prepared in collaboration with the Fundación Jacinto e Inocencio Guerrero. La Rosa de Azafrán was premiered at the Teatro Calderón de Madrid in 1930. It was composed on the same lines as other works such as Los gavilanes and La montería, also by Guerrero. The plot is set in the Castile that the composer, who was born in the village of Ajofrín in the province of Toledo, knew so well. Around the end of the 19th century a period of Spanish musical theatre came to an end and a new generation of creators came to the fore. This generation was in tune with the predominant aesthetic tastes in Europe and had to meet an incessant call for new works. The orchestral arrangements of the time had to adapt to these demands and also the scarcity of some instruments. 1. Preludio [audio:http://blog.trito.es/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/1_preludio1.mp3] 2. Canción del sembrador [audio:http://blog.trito.es/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/2_cancion_del_sembrador2.mp3] 3. No me duele que se vaya... [audio:http://blog.trito.es/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/13_no_me_duele_que_se_vaya1.mp3] Today’s listeners may have certain difficulties in appreciating the real magnitude of a “literal” performance of the score, which has been mutilated on numerous occasions in order to adapt it to the formats of the groups and orchestras that performed it. The present edition, prepared by Miguel Roa, has taken these particularities into account. He has rejected the presentation of a historicist version in favour of a version that certainly does not go against the author’s true intentions. You can download a sample here...