El Gato Montés is an opera by the Spanish composer Manuel Penella Moreno that is divided into three acts and five tableaux. It first premiered at the Teatro Principal in Valencia on 22 February 1916.
The opera, which takes place in typical Sevillian settings, tells the dramatic love story involving a bullfighter and a bandit who vie for the favours of the gypsy girl Soleá. Composed in the style of Italian verismo with a musical brilliance that bears comparison with Mascagni or Leoncavallo, it features scenes such as the persecution of the bandit through the mountains and the tragic goring of the bullfighter in the Maestranza bullring, which bring to mind the Spanish and Andalusian commonplaces of the genre. However the production staged by the Teatro de de la Zarzuela, with stage direction by José Carlos Plaza and choreography by the Sevillian Cristina Hoyos, avoids an emphasis on the folklore aspect and tells the story very much in the manner of a ‘Greek tragedy’, according to Plaza, in whose view Soleá decides her destiny pulled in different directions by the forces of attraction of her suitors. ‘Her heart can stand it no longer [...]. She dies of an inner struggle’, Plaza recognises. The staging expresses this tension through the lighting and a set which, according to Plaza, is ‘minimalist’ but brimming with passion. The stage director explains that it pays tribute to bullfighting by analysing ‘cruelty, strength and death’ in the context of ‘man’s age-old encounter with his destiny’.
The opera, which takes place in typical Sevillian settings, tells the dramatic love story involving a bullfighter and a bandit who vie for the favours of the gypsy girl Soleá. Composed in the style of Italian verismo with a musical brilliance that bears comparison with Mascagni or Leoncavallo, it features scenes such as the persecution of the bandit through the mountains and the tragic goring of the bullfighter in the Maestranza bullring, which bring to mind the Spanish and Andalusian commonplaces of the genre. However the production staged by the Teatro de de la Zarzuela, with stage direction by José Carlos Plaza and choreography by the Sevillian Cristina Hoyos, avoids an emphasis on the folklore aspect and tells the story very much in the manner of a ‘Greek tragedy’, according to Plaza, in whose view Soleá decides her destiny pulled in different directions by the forces of attraction of her suitors. ‘Her heart can stand it no longer [...]. She dies of an inner struggle’, Plaza recognises. The staging expresses this tension through the lighting and a set which, according to Plaza, is ‘minimalist’ but brimming with passion. The stage director explains that it pays tribute to bullfighting by analysing ‘cruelty, strength and death’ in the context of ‘man’s age-old encounter with his destiny’.