Jacinto Guerrero’s El huésped del Sevillano (The Guest at the Inn) is a zarzuela that premiered in Madrid in 1926.  It’s a light hearted musical romp and the soprano doesn’t die at the end.  I caught the last of three performances given by Toronto Operetta Theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin.

It was well done and made for an enjoyable and undemanding Sunday afternoon.  The story line has Miguel de Cervantes staying at an inn just outside Toledo looking for a plot for a new play or novel.  He gets it.  An artist Don Juan Luis is looking for a beautiful but virtuous model for his new painting of the Madonna.  He finds her in the swordsmith’s daughter Raquel and promptly falls in love with her.  But she is kidnapped by the evil Don Diego and imprisoned at the inn.  With the help of his servant Rodrigo and Rodrigo’s squeeze Constanzia, who works at the inn, Don Juan Luis engineers a rescue and they all live happily ever after (except Don Diego).  There’s a sub-plot about Rodrigo having vowed to marry an ugly woman and Cervantes keeps popping in to comment on the action and convey his thoughts on the creative process but it’s basically boy meets girl, complication, resolution!  Along the way there’s some tuneful music with a distinctly Spanish twist.

There were some really good performances.  Young Lucia Santilly was charming as the damsel-in-distress Raquel; singing tunefully and very much embodying the girl one wants to paint as the Madonna.  Diana Di Mauro sang just as well and proved to be a great mover and a really good comic actor; not so much the Madonna.  They were well matched by Tonatiuh Abrego, as the strait laced Don Juan Luis, who produced a really strong vocal performance, and Alexander Cappellazzo as the cheeky chappy Rodrigo whose comic acting matched de Mauro’s.  Sean Curran was amusingly arch as Cervantes and Stuart Graham produced some fine moustache twirling as Don Diego.

The rest of the cast and the chorus were fine and Kate Carver’s conducting of a small ensemble was idiomatic and well paced.  All in all it was what one wants from an operetta; romance, some laughs, tunes and a happy ending; all well brought off.