Title   La Gran Via (The Boulevard) Composer   Federigo Chueca Librettist   Felipe Pérez y Gonzalez Orchestration   Joaquin Valverde Genre   Zarzuela (light opera/operetta) First performance   Teatro Felipe, Madrid, 2 July 1886 Time of action   1886 Place of action   Madrid Main parts   Caballero de Gracia baritone     A street-lounger spoken part     A housemaid contralto or soprano     The Elíseo soprano     Three thieves two tenors and one bass/baritone     Policeman baritone Prominence of chorus   Considerable. Orchestra   2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets, 1 bassoon, 2 French horns,                2 trumpets, 3 trombones, kettle-drums, percussion, strings.. Special demands   None. Full score and orchestral parts   Available. Level   Not difficult. Length   One act, about one hour. Music   Continuous string of lively and catchy numbers. The polka of streets and alleys, the Caballero de Gracia's waltz, the servant-girl's gloriously vulgar tango, the Eliseo madrileño mazurka, the sailors' song: all of them little masterpieces. Story   Wandering through the city, a street-lounger finds himself in a sort of hospital waiting-room, in the company of the streets, alleys and squares of Madrid. Behind a door, the city is giving birth to La Gran Via, a grand new boulevard, to which, it is feared, many old parts of the town will be sacrificed. The Caballero de Gracia, one of Madrid's main streets, appears; this conceited personage expresses the wish to contract a marriage with the new boulevard. A doctor announces that the birth is not immediately due. The Caballero the Gracia is then taken on tour of the city by the street-lounger; among the places they visit are suburbs, the docks, a dancing-place, the arena, a skating rink; they meet various colourful characters: a servant-girl, thieves, roller-skaters, sailors, policemen etc. In the end they return to the hospital. Suddenly the new boulevard is born. Such miracles only happen on special days such as this: the thirtieth of February. The spectacle ends with a procession to the music of the opening number. Costumes   Men: policemen and townspeople. Women: sailors and townspeople.