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Bernarda Alba

LaChiusa brings a musical voice for Federico Garcia Lorca's final 1936 masterpiece, The House of Bernarda Alba, through the pulsing castanets, trilling Spanish guitars and resounding rhythmic stomps.

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Description

  • Full Length Musical
  • Drama
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1930s
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult
  • Set Requirements: Bare Stage/Simple Set
  • Orchestra Size: Medium

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, High School/Secondary, Professional Theatre, College Theatre / Student, Senior Theatre
Bernarda Alba tells the tales of a powerful matriarch, who imposes a strict rule on her household following her second husband's funeral: "Not a breath of outside air is going to enter this house. It's going to feel like we've bricked up the doors and windows," she proclaims. Bernarda's five daughters, however, struggle with her cold wishes. The girls' dreams and desires challenge their mother's harsh rules and the outside world begins to slowly permeate their isolated existence.

A perfect show for a strong female cast, Bernarda Alba is a masterwork by Michael John LaChiusa, who has brought us such critically acclaimed hits as The Wild Party and Marie Christine.
REVIEWS:

"“It's even possible that, just as it's now difficult to watch George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION without hearing the songs that Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe wrote for MY FAIR LADY, Michael John LaChiusa's BERNARDA ALBA will become more popular in this country than Lorca's grim, impassioned play. That's how powerful a work of art it is.”

David Finkle Theatermania

"Not just a good musical or a great musical, but a musical for the ages. That impossibly rare thing: an engrossing musical drama, so superbly integrated that all boundaries between speech, music, and dance blur and dissolve before your eyes... Like all great adaptations it eclipses its source. BERNARDA ALBA brings to arresting theatrical life the soul of Lorca's compact emotional epic in a way that will make it impossible to ever look at the original the same way again.”

Matthew Murray TalkinBroadway.com

"A serious and seamless musicalization... shows off LaChiusa's native strengths: his grasp of the living rhythms of theatrical language, which pervades not only his music and lyrics but his expert shaping of the libretto; his eagerness to cut directly to the dark, despairing marrow of his material; and his raw, almost Gothic sensuality."

Rob Kendt Broadway.com

"Michael John LaChiusa has done it again. BERNARDA ALBA is fascinating, riveting, vibrant, and exciting."

Steven Suskind Playbill

“Michael John LaChiusa has finally composed the impeccable tuner that cognoscenti have been awaiting with waning patience. .. this 90-minute, intermissionless compression of the hothouse play is absolutely stunning in every possible category.”

David Finkle Theatermania
Premiere Production: Composer/Lyricist Michael John LaChiusa brought the world premiere of Bernarda Alba to the Newhouse, an ideally intimate setting for the piece. Graciela Daniele directed and choreographed.

Characters

  • Casting: 10F
  • Casting Attributes: Parts for Senior Actors, Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle), All Female
  • Casting Notes: The score is influenced by Spanish folk song and flamenco; vocally, this requires versatility from each actor.
  • Chorus Size: Medium

  • BERNARDA ALBA - late 50's, early 60's


    Bernarda's Daughters:
    ANGUSTIAS - 39- years-old
    MAGDALENA - 35-years-old
    AMELIA - 32-years-old
    MARTITIO - 29-years-old
    ADELA - 25-years-old


    MARIA JOSEPHA - Bernarda's Mother, 80-years-old
    PONCIA - 50's, Bernarda's Servant
    YOUNG MAID - early 20's
    SERVANT (doubled with Prudencia) - 40's
    PRUDENCIA (doubled with Servant) - Bernarda's Neighbor

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Perusal Material Shipped immediately. This is optional. Order Now

    1 x Libretto Book
    1 x Piano Vocal Score

    		$24.00
    Pre-Production Pack Shipped upon receipt of a signed License Agreement and full payment of all invoices. This is optional.

    1 x Libretto Book
    1 x Piano Vocal Score

    		$75.00
    Rehearsal Material Shipped a minimum of 3 months before the last performance. This must be hired as a condition of the License to produce this show.

    20 x Libretto Books
    2 x Piano Vocal Scores

    		$550.00 +$135.00/pm
    Orchestral Material Shipped a minimum of 1 month before the last performance. This is optional.

    1 x Piano Vocal Score
    1 x Reed
    1 x Guitar
    1 x Viola
    1 x Cello I
    1 x Cello II
    1 x Bass
    1 x Harp
    1 x Percussion: Dumbek, Triangle, Small Triangle, Mounted Tambourine, Large Ethnic Tambourine, Maraca, Drums, Snare, Bass (kick) Drum, High and Low Toms, 5 Concert Toms, Suspended Cymbal, Chimes, Finger Cymbal, Vibes, Shaker, Wood Block, Glockenspiel, Hammer (On Crate), Bongos, Castanets, Rattle, Puili, Cajon, Small Hand Drum

    		$350.00 +$135.00/pm
    Lib/Vocal Book 10 Pack Shipped with (or after) Rehearsal Material. This is optional.

    10 x Libretto Books

    		$50.00 +$50.00/pm

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