• Jesús Guridi. Drama lirico in three acts and an epilogue. 1920.
• Basque libretto by José de Arrué after Francisco Navarro Villoslada’s novel Amaya o los vascos en el siglo VIII (Amaya or The Basques in the Eighth Century).
• First performance at the Coliseo Albia, Bilbao, on 23rd May 1920.

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CHARACTERS

Amaya	soprano
Amagoya	mezzo-soprano
Paula	mezzo-soprano
Olalla	mezzo-soprano
Asier	bass
Teodosio	tenor
Migel	baritone

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Set in the Basque Country in the eighth century, the opera deals with the fate of Amaya, heir to the pagan Patriarch Aitor and betrothed as a child to Asier, adopted son of the pagan priestess Amagoya, destined by this marriage to be king. The Christian Teodosio has been chosen to champion the country against Moorish invaders. In Asier’s long absence he marries Amaya, but Asier, on his return, by trickery induces him to doubt her constancy, leading him, in error, to murder his own parents. Condemned to expiate his crime as a hermit, Teodosio is eventually released from his penance, able to forgive Asier, as the latter dies, and to be reunited with Amaya, now a Christian, through the agency of St Michael.

Guridi’s opera has had limited international success, at least with its original Basque libretto. The work draws on Basque folk elements, both musically and, clearly, in its story.