Conde Duque brings back the tonadilla genre for Gastrofestival

For the first time ever, Conde Duque is taking part in Gastrofestival, the culinary event organised by Madrid City Council through the municipal company Madrid Destino and Madrid Fusión. The venue will be the headquarters of the festival's programme, featuring a wide range of musical activities grouped together in the series Días de musica y sabores (Days of music and flavours), in addition to literary activities.

One of the programme’s highlights is the return of a very traditional form of musical theatre in Madrid, the tonadilla, which was extremely popular up to the early 19th century, but has not been brought to the stage since. The scores for both scheduled shows were taken from manuscripts held at the Conde Duque Historic Municipal Library, and they have probably not been performed since the 18th century.

Recovering Madrid's cultural heritage

The performances of two culinary-themed tonadillas revived specifically for this occasion – La caracolera y el amolador (The Snail Seller and the Knife Grinder) by Isidro Laporta, and El confitero (The Confectioner), with music by Blas de Laserna – are events of great interest, reasserting the value of Madrid's cultural heritage. The scores were recovered by musician Miguel Ángel Jiménez who, alongside Isabel Lozano Martínez, directs and produces the show, which will be performed by a group created specifically for the event including six musicians, two actors/singers and two dancers. The genre required artists who could sing, dance and act as well as a small orchestra, and had to be performed on a stage. The staging requirements of a tonadilla are virtually the same as those of a zarzuela, but on a smaller scale.

The shows will take place on 5 and 6 February at 8pm in the auditorium at Conde Duque. A Zumosol juice-tasting session will be held after the performance.

The history of the tonadilla

The tonadilla is a form of Spanish lyric theatre that was performed onstage from around the mid-18th to the early 19th century. After this period, music in Spain began to be influenced by Italian preferences and the pure local genre of the tonadilla fell into decline.

The tonadilla could be considered equivalent to the Italian Intermezzo, a piece designed to be performed between a comedy's acts, lasting no more than twenty minutes. In Spain this purpose was also served by entremeses, but the tonadilla came to be increasingly demanded by audiences, who applauded the fact that the texts were no longer simply spoken but essentially sung.

Experts estimate that roughly three thousand tonadillas have been preserved, including both scores and librettos. These were performed in Madrid's theatres, namely Teatro Príncipe and Teatro de la Cruz. They were so successful that audiences who attended Madrid's theatres eagerly anticipated the new tonadillas they would hear. The fact that the main comedy being staged became less of a draw shows the great skill of the tonadilla composers, who were obliged to create music with an amusing, traditional tone on practically a daily basis, basing their compositions on texts with completely ordinary, everyday content.

Jazz, cheese & sherry

Another main attraction on the Conde Duque programme is a tasting concert which pairs jazz with different cheeses and sherry, drawing attention to the cultural and artisanal savoir-faire. This initiative welcomes the collaboration of the cheese shop Quesería Conde Duque, one of the foodie establishments that has breathed new life into the neighbourhood around Conde Duque. Music is provided by the Alberto Vilas jazz quartet.

The concert is a unique sensory experience aimed at promoting participants' enjoyment through music, cheese and wine. Six compositions and artisan cheeses have been selected for the occasion, from cheesemakers Félix Iniesta, Ramón Lizeaga, Ángel Valeriano Rojo, Gregoria Martínez Diego, Pere Pujol and Rubén Valbuena. All of these will be accompanied by González Byass wines. While the audience samples various wines and cheeses, the musical pieces will transport them to the regions that produced each one and the people involved in the individual projects. The two Jazz, Cheese & Sherry concerts will take place on 12 and 13 February at 8pm in Sala Polivalente at Conde Duque.

As usual at this cultural centre, the programme has been designed to draw on the social and cultural fabric of the surrounding neighbourhood. In addition to Quesería Conde Duque, participants lined up include Amaniel Big Band, a jazz ensemble from the Amaniel Conservatory, and Orfeón Malasaña, an open choral group made up of local residents. Both concerts will be accompanied by two wine tastings featuring varieties from Freixenet and Alcardet, respectively.

On 14 February at 8pm in the Conde Duque auditorium, Amaniel Big Band will give a performance taking the audience on a journey through the history of jazz. Meanwhile, on 7 February at 8pm, the Orfeón Malasaña choral group will be singing a diverse selection of pieces ranging from Brazilian music to opera and blues.

The literary menu of Gabriel García Márquez

The Gastrofestival’s literary programme gets off to a grand start at Conde Duque with a culinary journey of flavours described in the works of Gabriel García Márquez, paying homage to the native, Spanish and African influences that have shaped traditional Caribbean cuisine. This tour designed by Foodies, specialists in food and culture experiences and recipient of the grant for the International Mobility of Cultural Entrepreneurs awarded by Colombia’s Ministry of Culture, combines readings with music and projections. It draws links between García Marquez's magical realism and the extensive cuisine of the Colombian Caribbean.

The event is based on Spanish-language excerpts from Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories, Big Mama's Funeral and Love in the Time of Cholera. It will take place on 3 February at 8pm in the Salón de Actos at Conde Duque, and includes a tasting of traditional Colombian sweets. The event will be led by food jounalist Mar Romero.

In addition, for several days during the Gastrofestival, Pilpira Teatro proposes an individual 'tasting' of Poemas a la carta on the Conde Duque premises. This act is served up on the spot by the group's two members, Álvaro Paz Maudes and Sonia Luchena, using an original dispenser: a kettle with tubes so that each spectator can listen to the poem of their choice.