La orgía dorada. Cabaret lírico en un acto

Contemporary version of the zarzuela La orgía dorada, which Pedro Víllora turns into a lyrical cabaret in one act. The production mixes fragments of the original with reinvented cuplés and unreleased songs.

This production revives La orgía dorada, a zarzuela with a libretto by Pedro Muñoz Seca, Tomás Borrás and Pedro Pérez Fernández and music by Jacinto Guerrero and Julián Benlloch, and recasts it as a lyrical cabaret with dramaturgy by Pedro Víllora. The original work is set during the Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville and follows a playwright whose script is rejected, alongside a group of characters from rural backgrounds caught up in a chain of deceptions. It portrays speculation, crime, prostitution and the power of money.

Víllora's rewrite transposes those fraudulent mechanisms to the present day, from the cons of old to the deceptions that circulate on social media and digital environments, and culminates in a satire on capital's capacity to condition people. The stage combines fragments of zarzuela, reinvented cuplés and unreleased songs, with the number Soldadito español among the best-known pieces of the work, and the production frequently breaks the fourth wall.

The performance takes place in the main hall of the Teatro Fernán Gómez, Centro Cultural de la Villa, a Madrid theatre and cultural centre whose programming focuses on the performing arts and which also hosts concerts. Feathers, sequins and irony accompany a social critique that remains relevant nearly a century after its premiere.