The writers of the Spanish Golden Age put Seville on the map and this led many composers to set their romantic operas in this beautiful city, an operatic legend and the setting for over 100 operas. Thus was the city's fame as an exotic destination cemented. Mozart, Beethoven, Bizet and Rossini are just four of the names associated with the capital of Andalucia and the repertoire of the world's great music houses keeps the works fresh in the minds of opera lovers.
Settings for Operas in Seville
Visitors to the city can take a walking tour of the physical places that are mentioned in the most famous of the Operas that have Seville as their setting: Carmen, The Barber of Seville, Don Juan de Mañara, La Forza del Destino, Fidelio, and La Favourita. Walk through the narrow lanes and alleyways of the Santa Cruz area, search out the palaces, plazas and patios, and experience Seville in a different way, because only Seville has inspired composers to feature a city at such length.
If you follow the trail on the excellent free map supplied by Seville Tourism you will come upon such iconic buildings as The Old Tobacco Factory (now the University of Seville) where the gypsy girl Carmen had the cat-fight with a fellow worker that led to her meeting with José, his eventual downfall and her death. Follow this trail along to the gaol, then through the Santa Cruz area where the gypsies evaded the authorities in the maze of alleys and streets that make up the barrio and finish at the magnificent bullring where the final tragic scene is played out. If you can, plug yourself into a recording of the opera as you walk, it makes for inspired listening!
Another day visit Figaro House, the Charity Hospital and the Royal Arsenal of Cavalry and then cross the bridge to Triana Market. The market is worth a visit for itself, a riot of colours and citrus smells, Seville oranges, persimmons, pomegranates, enormous red tomatoes, radishes and water melons. The reason for visiting the market, apart from the sights and smells, it is that it is built over the former St. George's Castle, the scene for the opening of Beethoven's Fidelio.
The Trail of the Three Legends in Seville
This trail introduces us to the lives of Carmen, Don Juan and Figaro and with just a little suspension of disbelief you can allow yourself to be transported back to the age in which the operas are located. Carmen, initially an idea in the mind of the author Prosper Merimée and then transformed into one of the world's favourite operas by Bizet, could be said to symbolize Seville, a story about a passionate, romantic gypsy who played out her life against the exotic background of this beautiful city.
Don Juan was a legendary cavalier of universal fame, brought to life in over fifty operas and as many plays and playlets. Although the legend has tended to set the libertine in different cities, it was in Seville during the Romantic period that the story had its heyday. At the Palace of the Mañaras, two operas featuring the legendary rake were set, one of which – Don Juan de Mañara – is supposedly based on a real 18th century Seville nobleman.There is a statue to Don Juan in the Plaza de los Refinadores.
Figaro, the fictitious character in The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro has many connections with Seville because the city was regarded as the embodiment of Romanticism during the period when other European cities were undergoing social changes initiated by the French Revolution. Thus Figaro became a stock figure around whom Mozart and Rossini composed their works. Rosina's Balcony has been located on the corner of Argote de Molina and Segovia Streets and it is thought that Figaro's house might have stood in the area around the Royal Palace of the Alcazar and The Cathedral.
There are many more buildings and streets to discover on the Opera Trails, I've mentioned only a few. The Seville Tourist Board has made it easy for the visitor by mapping out two great trails that lead one, street plan in hand, through the scenery and the lanes and alleys that inspired the great composers. The two trails are known as: Setting for Operas and Trail of the Three Legends. Pick up a leaflet and set out on a voyage of discovery, tracking down the settings for these popular operas.
Mari Nicholson - Award Winning travel writer and historian, member of British Guild of Travel Writers.Travelwriters.co.uk, and Society of Women Writers and ...
