"No puede ser" (It cannot be) is an
aria
In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
sung by Leandro (
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...
) in the second act of the
zarzuela, ''
La tabernera del puerto'', composed by
Pablo Sorozábal
Pablo Sorozábal Mariezcurrena (18 September 1897 – 26 December 1988) was a Spanish composer of zarzuelas, operas, symphonic works, and the popular ''romanza'', " No puede ser".
He was born in San Sebastián, in a working-class family. ...
to a
libretto by
Federico Romero and
Guillermo Fernández-Shaw
Guillermo Fernández-Shaw Iturralde (26 February 1893 - 17 August 1965) was a Spanish poet and journalist. He is particularly known as a writer of libretti, primarily for zarzuelas. With Federico Romero, he wrote the libretti for two of the b ...
. ''La tabernera del puerto'' premiered in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
in 1936. One of the most famous arias in the
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in th ...
, ''No puede ser'' has been part of the concert repertoire of many Spanish tenors, including
Alfredo Kraus
Alfredo Kraus Trujillo (; 24 November 192710 September 1999) was a distinguished Spanish tenor from the Canary islands (known professionally as Alfredo Kraus), particularly known for the artistry he brought to opera's bel canto roles. He wa ...
,
José Carreras and
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French ...
who sang it in the 1990
Three Tenors
The Three Tenors were an operatic singing trio, active during the 1990s and early 2000s, and termed as a supergroup (a title normally reserved for rock and pop groups) consisting of Italian Luciano Pavarotti and Spaniards Plácido Domingo and ...
concert.
References
*Webber, Christopher
''La tabernera del puerto'' 2002
External links
on zarzuela.net
Compositions by Pablo Sorozábal
Opera excerpts
1936 songs
{{opera-stub