Margot (opera)

Margot
Opera by Joaquín Turina
Libretto cover, 1914
Librettist	Gregorio Martínez Sierra
Premiere	10 October 1914 (1914-10-10) Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid

Margot is an opera in three acts (later reduced to two) composed by Joaquín Turina to a Spanish-language libretto by Gregorio Martínez Sierra. It premiered at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid on 10 October 1914. Set in Paris and Seville, the opera's story involves a love triangle between José Manuel, a young Spaniard; Margot, a Parisian courtesan with whom he has an affair; and Amparo, José Manuel's sweetheart in Andalucía.

Margot was the second of Turina's three operas, and the first to be staged. He began its composition on 24 June 1914 and finished the orchestration on 27 September, less than three weeks before the opera's premiere. His librettist, María Lejárraga (writing as was customary for her, under the name of her husband Gregorio Martínez Sierra) had recently written the libretto for José María Usandizaga's Las golondrinas ("The Swallows"), which had premiered in Madrid in February 1914. She would later write the libretto for Turina's third opera, Jardín de oriente ("Oriental Garden").

Margot premiered on 10 October 1914 at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid in a production directed by Francisco Meana with sets by Luis Muriel. The critical (and audience) reception at the premiere was mixed. While there was praise for Turina's score, the subject matter was considered "vulgar" and the libretto "unfortunate" and "lacking in originality". The work had a more positive reception in its subsequent performances the following year in Zaragoza and Seville. In June–July 1916, it was performed at the Teatro Victoria in Buenos Aires and the Teatro Urquiza in Montevideo, but received no further performances until 1999, the 50th anniversary of Turina's death, when the opera was performed in a concert version at the Gran Teatro in Córdoba on 14 September and replicated the following day at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville. A further concert revival took place in Madrid in March 2000 at the Teatro Monumental with largely the same cast as the 1999 performances in Córdoba and Seville.