A Sunny Morning (Piano/Vocal Score)

Libretto:
Based on the play by Serafin and Joaquin Quintero.

Synopsis:
A sunny morning in a corner of a park in Madrid in the early 1900’s. Autumn, A bench nearby. DOÑA LAURA, a handsome, white-haired old lady of about seventy, refined in appearance, enters leaning upon the arm of her maid, PETRA. In her free hand she carries a parasol, which serves also as a cane. She is happy that her regular bench is not occupied. She dismisses PETRA for a while and sits on the bench. Shortly thereafter she begins to feed bread crumbs to the pigeons.

DON GONZALO, an old gentleman of seventy, gouty and impatient, appears with his assistant JUANITO looking for a bench. After a brief unsuccessful search they walk towards DOÑA’S bench and scare away the pigeons. She becomes angry and scolds DON GONZALO who meanwhile sends JUANITO away and proceeds to sit on DOÑA LAURA’S bench. An argument begins between the two. “This is my bench,” she says… “Your bench?” he replies. “This is a public park!” Finally the unpleasant interaction between the two relaxes. They speak about their various pasts. In the process, much to their shock and surprise, they come to realize that they were once lovers in their youth. However, throughout their dialogue, neither admits openly that they were aware that the other had been their lover in the past. With further dialogue we learn that in his youth DON GONZALO used to bring flowers to a Laura Llorente in a villa named Maricela. Laura Llorente is none other than DOÑA LAURA who hides her surprise at the mention of her name by DON GONZALO. She mentions a favorite song of the day called, “Maricela, The Land of Dreams.” They proceed to sing it together. As the story progresses, we learn what happened to them after the young romance ended. It all comes to an end when we hear “Maricela, The Land of Dreams” for the last time.