left free, and which was already a venue of some note. But the most important venue associated with the género chico is the Teatro Apolo, opened in 1873, which, following the crisis in zarzuela grande, began to put on género chico, to overwhelming popular success. By Franco was considered the real bastion of the genre, and very famous because of the popularity of its fourth session, "la cuarta de Apolo", which was a night-time performance and was always full of dodgy characters, rogues and tricksters no different from the villains represented on stage. Outside of the theatres, the género chico was also performed in small cafés, and during the summer cheap stages were set up for plays. Indeed, the arguably most important play in the genre, La Gran Vía, was performed in this way. Lyrical farce as form of género chico The main model for género chico is the sainete lírico or one-act lyrical farce, thanks to the successful La canción de la Lola ("Lola's Song") by Chueca and Valverde, in 1880. Although other genres are also utilised, the most important plays follow this model. The sainete, established in its definitive form by Ramón de la Cruz, is the direct heir of the comic interludes or brief farces that were previously so popular. These are essentially short, independent pieces, with music and often dance. The género chico evolved from this form towards a relatively faithful portrait of everyday Madrid life, in keeping with the abovementioned Realism. However, unlike Realism, which lingers on the darker and murkier aspects of reality, such as poor, marginal sections of society and the violence running through them, the género chico, whilst dealing with low-class neighbourhoods and uneducated people, concentrated on the jollier, picturesque aspects of Madrid, such as the dialect of the characters, and their most jovial facets. Moreover, as a unique characteristic of the genre, the constant presence of open-air parties, often at night, which appear at the beginning of the plays in order to situate them and at the end as dénouement. Libretto The plot is very simple, and sometimes barely holds up the play, which then relies on the scenes it creates. In the majority of cases, it consists of a simple love story with the same basic structure: a couple is in love but some outside difficulty prevents them from consummating their love (always, by marrying each other in a happy