The vibrant music composed for this zarzuela by the composer and maestro Francisco Asenjo Barbieri combines splendid orchestration with the popular and folk substratum of traditional Madrid.
This zarzuela in three acts with text by the playwright Luis Mariano de Larra and music by the maestro and composer Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, was premiered on 18 December 1874 in the Zarzuela Theatre in Madrid. The title and other elements are a slight parody of Rossini's opera "The Barber of Seville".
It belongs to a type of zarzuela that used to mix love stories with political or pseudohistorical intrigue. In this case, the plot revolves around two love stories, one of plebeians and one of noblemen, which take place in Madrid just after the mutiny against Esquilache (1766).
Thus, Barbieri creates an atmosphere of political conspiracies, not lacking certain social criticism, in a traditional and customs setting where the love affairs of the protagonists take place.
