No puede ser (La tabernera del puerto, a Zarzuela also known as Romance Marinero)by Pablo Sorozábal (1897-1988)

Ifriky Tadadjeu Sokeng (Tenor)

Albert Combrink (Piano) & Stellenbosch Camerata.

Live Amateur Footage shot at “Opera in a Convent Garden 2014”

Read more about “Opera in a Convent Garden” HERE: https://www.albertcombrink.com/2014/01/01/ocg2014pressrelease/ Follow Ifriky’s Youtube Channel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/user/ifriky Find Ifriky’s Website HERE: http://www.ifriky.co.za/ Read more about Ifriky HERE: https://www.albertcombrink.com/2013/12/15/singing-its-not-rocket-science-you-know-ifriky-tadadjeu-sokeng-interviewed-by-albert-combrink/ Read more about this delightful Zarzuela at the lovely website Zarzuela.net. Twitter: @ifriky / @albertcombrink

Pablo Sorozábal Mariezcurrena (September 18, 1897—December 26, 1988) was a Basque-Spanish composer. Trained in San Sebastián, Madrid and Leipzig; then in Berlin, where he preferred Friedrich Koch as composition teacher to Arnold Schönberg, whose theories he disliked. It was in Germany that he made his conducting debut, and the rostrum remained at the centre of his working life. His Leipzig concert works include the choral Suite vasca (1923); Dos apuntes Vascos (1925) and Symphonic Variations on a Basque Theme (1927); of later works the funeral march Gernika for chorus and orchestra (1966) is outstanding. The Siete Lieder, 1929 settings of Heinrich Heine for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, are perhaps the finest works he produced in Germany. Two short but powerful compositions for chorus and orchestra, Maite (‘Our Lady’, from the 1946 film Jai-Alai) and ¡Ay, tierra vasca! (1956) retain their place in the hearts of his Basque countrymen. Katiuska (1931) was his stage debut, and the twenty or so zarzuelas which followed combine lyric fire and inimitable orchestration with an unfailing sense of theatre. Best-loved are his classic madrileño comedy La del manojo de rosas (1934) and the “nautical romance” set on the Atlantic Coast La tabernera del puerto of 1936. Sorozábal’s liberal sympathies left him somewhat isolated after the Spanish Civil War, and many of his later zarzuelas were first seen outside the capital or in less prestigious Madrid theatres. They include the ambitious, allegorical romance Black, el payaso (1942), and the ski-sports musical Don Manolito (1943). Sorozábal also wrote scores for non-musical films, notably the classic Spanish film Marcelino Pan y Vino (1955). His tenure as director of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra ended abruptly in 1952 when he was refused permission to conduct Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony; and though his musical comedy Las de Caín was premiered at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in 1958, the opera Juan José had to wait for its belated (and highly successful) concert premiere until February 2009, after a full production was suspended during rehearsals in Madrid during 1979. With his death in Madrid on 26 December 1988 the last chapter in the creative history of the romantic zarzuela came to an end. Sorozábal’s theatrical vitality, musical wit and dramatic force are second to none in the history of zarzuela and rival the best of his German and Italian music theatre contemporaries, such as Kurt Weill.

No puede ser (La tabernera del puerto):Pablo Sorozábal – Spanish Lyrics

Leandro. ¡No puede ser! Esa mujer es buena. ¡No puede ser una mujer malvada! En su mirar como una luz singular he visto que esa mujer es una desventurada. No puede ser una vulgar sirena que envenenó las horas de mi vida. ¡No puede ser! porque la ví rezar, porque la ví querer, porque la ví llorar. Los ojos que lloran no saben mentir; las malas mujeres no miran así. Temblando en sus ojos dos lágrimas ví y a mi me ilusiona que tiemblen por mí. Viva luz de mi ilusión, sé piadosa con mi amor, porque no sé fingir, porque no sé callar, porque no sé vivir.

No puede ser (La tabernera del puerto):Pablo Sorozábal – Spanish Lyrics Translated into English

Leandro. It cannot be so! This woman is good. She cannot be a bad woman! In her look, like a strange light, I’ve seen that this woman is unhappy. She cannot be a cheap siren who has poisoned every moment of my life. It cannot be so! Because I’ve seen her pray, because I’ve seen her love, because I’ve seen her cry! Those eyes that cry don’t know how to lie. Bad women do not look like that. Glinting in her eyes I saw two tears, and my hope is, they glint for me. Vivid light of my hopes! Take pity on my love! Because I cannot pretend, because I cannot be silent, because I cannot live!