The two composers produced a score consistently strong on melody, colour and atmosphere. The choral and orchestral numbers paint an attractive picture of the Segovian countryside and its people, and Aurora's duets with her husband and Miguel bring unusual operatic situations to vivid life. This is that operatic rarity, a love song from a husband to his faithful wife, and Soutullo and Vert made the most of the opportunity with a powerful display of passionate lyricism and formal subtlety. Sunday morning in September, on the edge of a village in the countryside near Segovia, mid-19th Century.
Past events are crucial to the events of the zarzuela.
After a brief orchestral Preludio evoking the bright morning sunshine, the curtain rises on a group of farm workers, praising the beauty of the Segovian land as they walk to a hermitage to pay their respects on Fiesta day. When Aurora comes out of the house to speak to her husband she interprets his preoccupied air as a loss of affection, and though he tries to laugh it off, he is silent when she accuses him of keeping some secret from her. Miguel comes to the farmhouse, looking for his darling Angelita. Miguel, offended by his friend's lack of support, demands proof of such assertions and leaves to question Angelita. Prudencio remains determined to use the affair as the basis for a tragic love epic.