ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE WITHIN A STAGE.

Byline: CRAIG SMITH I THE NEW MEXICAN

Mention a story about a cosmetologist-haircutter in Seville, and everyone will probably flash to Rossini's 1816 comic opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia. But there's more operatic material out there on the subject than Figaro's aria "Largo al factotum" and Rosina's cavatina "Una voce poco fa." There's the zarzuela El Barbero de Sevilla, which comes to the Lensic Performing Arts Center from the National Hispanic Cultural Center next week, for two shows. The work will be performed in Spanish with English supertitles.

Salome Martinez-Lutz, a native New Mexican who has worked extensively with Repertorio Espanol in New York and is a theater stalwart on the Albuquerque scene, has directed the 1901 work composed by Geronimo Gimenez and Manuel Nieto, with a text by Guillermo Perrin and Miguel de Palacios. Conductor, writer, and pianist Pablo Zinger, a noted zarzuela expert, is music director. The roles of the young lovers -- as in opera, you've got to have them -- will be performed by Virginia Herrera and Mauricio Trejo.

In broad terms, zarzuela is the Spanish equivalent of French opera comique, German singspiel, British operetta a la Gilbert and Sullivan, and American musical comedy, but with a twist. It combines spoken dialogue and acting, song taken to operatic levels, and at times, dance. It often deals with topical issues or at least that favorite standby, young love. And it mixes comedy with astute commentary on human behavior.

According to British zarzuela scholar Christopher Webber, the art form is also not afraid to send up musical and theatrical formalism. "Zarzuela may be opera's little sister, but her behavior toward her elder sibling is not always respectful," he wrote in a 2007 review of an English production of El Barbero. "Sometimes it borders on cheek." In recent e-mail comments to Pasatiempo, he referred to El Barbero as "that joyously naughty musical farce." The plot bears out his assertion that the work "has nothing to do with Rossini's matter, everything to do with backstage brouhaha surrounding a provincial production of his famous masterpiece."

In line with many other oh-I-want-to-be-an-artist plots, young Elena is determined to tread the boards as a singer. Equally in keeping with theatrical tradition, her father, Don Nicolas, considers the stage to be a morally reprehensible place and forbids her to even talk about it.

When a production of Rossini's opera in Burgos needs someone as Rosina, the female lead, Elena's mother (Dona Casimira) and voice teacher (Cesar Bataglia) arrange for her to go. After all, Burgos is far north of Seville, and there's no chance papa will be around. But as it turns out, the business trip he is on is actually an excuse to visit his inamorata in, you guessed it, Burgos.

This is rather appropriate, when you think about it, because Burgos is where one of Don Giovanni's many conquests lived, the initially pious but later passionate Donna Elvira. Of course, the mistress in this case turns out to be an operatic diva who just happens to be working in the same theater Elena is auditioning in.

To complicate matters even more, Elena's ardent suitor is also an aspiring opera singer but has to pretend to be a surveyor in order to get around her father's prejudice. Thus all kinds of farcical situations ensue, with plenty of vigorous and sentimental music to back them up.

"The hit number is Elena's polonesa 'Me llaman la primorosa'," Webber said, "an example of an 'audition' song which has been oft recorded, and for very good reason." He was referring to the operatic convention of a song sung within the action as part of the plot, as in the lesson scenes for Rosina and Marie in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Donizetti's La fille du regiment, respectively, or Eboli's "Veil Song" in Verdi's Don Carlo. He added that the BMG recording of the zarzuela is now out of print, and that the score itself is still not in the public domain.

Besides Herrera and Trejo, the cast includes Nelly M. Kirmer and Jose Garcia Davis as Dona Casimira and Don Nicolas; Jose Daniel Apodaca as Benito Sanchez; Paul Barrientos as Cesar Bataglia; Marc Christopher Sanchez as Perez; Jaime Pardo as Lopez; and Martinez-Lutz as the diva La Roldan.

"We did El Barbero here at NHCC the first time in 2007," Martinez-Lutz said. "People wanted to see it again, so we brought it back in 2008. Because I was born and raised in Santa Fe,

I wanted to take this to Santa Fe for part of the 400th-anniversary celebrations. This is the first time I've performed there since I left!

"This zarzuela is in what they call genero chico, or small genre. It's a full cast of nine, with no chorus." Her character, La Roldan, "is a real witch, but it's all in comedy, so I try to make her as much fun as possible. This young whippersnapper comes in -- Roldan is much older, obviously -- and riles things up.

"You have to be a good actor and singer in zarzuela,"Martinez- Lutz added. "This has a few character actors who have to do little singing, but we all need to be up to snuff in terms of

classical training."

details

El Barbero de Sevilla

<25Bsday and Friday, Oct. 29 and 30

Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St.

$10-$20, student & senior discounts available