Musical diversity will be on full display on May 3, 2024, at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts on the Opening Night of the Spanish Zarzuela, El Huésped del Sevillano – The Guest at the Inn. Presented by Toronto Operetta Theatre, Canada’s only professional operetta company, the performance will be attended by over 100 students from El Sistema-Toronto, The Hammer Band and Halton Waldorf High School. “We are thrilled to introduce this amazing musical entertainment to these young people”, says TOT’s General Director Guillermo Silva-Marin. “TOT has always championed music theatre from around the world and we want to share this music with new, young audiences in the GTA.”

The performance will be attended by the Consul General of Spain in Toronto, Don Francisco de Asís Benítez Salas, bringing special greetings from Ambassador, His Excellency Don Alfredo Martínez Serrano.

A Canadian Premiere, Jacinto Guerrero’s El Huésped del Sevillano – The Guest at the Inn, runs for three performances from May 3 – 5 (mat). The Zarzuela will be sung in Spanish with English surtitles and the dialogue will be in English as realized by Guillermo Silva-Marín.

El Huésped del Sevillano premiered at Teatro Apolo in Madrid in 1926 and was an instant hit. Librettists Enrique Reoyo and Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena provided Guerrero with characters noble, rustic and comic and he responded with his most deeply considered work. The Zarzuela is a ‘play within a play’ and the guest at the inn is none other than Cervantes, watching, absorbing and commenting on the eternal human drama that unfolds before him in Toledo, the center of Castilian Spain’s Golden Age.

The Zarzuela will be conducted by Kate Carver, who led our immensely successful La Verbena de la Paloma last spring. A favourite with TOT patrons, Mexican/Canadian Tenor Tonatiuh Abrego will be heard as the hero, Juan Luis. Lucia Santilly is his love interest, Rachel, making her TOT debut. Diana Di Mauro as Constancia and Alexander Cappellazzo as Rodrigo, are the eternal comedic pair, trying their best to save the day by rescuing the heroine from danger at the Inn. Stuart Graham returns to TOT after his Don Hilarion in La Verbena de la Paloma, as the villain Count Don Diego, relishing as always, playing the bad guy.

TOT’s budget-priced FAMILY NIGHT OUT offers discounts of up to 50% for children and youth under 16 years of age on Friday or Saturday. Single ticket prices range from $75 to $95, with discounts for groups of 20. The company is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Green Sanderson Family Foundation, the Jackman Foundation, the Bedolfe Foundation, the Dalglish Family Foundation, the Marry-Margaret Webb Foundation, the John Henry Williams Estate and media sponsor Classical 96.3 FM.

All performances at the wheelchair-accessible St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts at 27 Front St. East. Call 416-366-7723 or 1-800-708-6754 or TOLIVE.com. The theatre is convenient for public transportation and parking. For further information, call TOT at 416-922-2912 or visit us at www.torontooperetta.com.