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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2009 El Gato Montés: A Victim in Spain's Struggle to Establish A National Operatic Identity Karen Esquivel Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC EL GATO MONTÉS: A VICTIM IN SPAIN‟S STRUGGLE TO ESTABLISH A NATIONAL OPERATIC IDENTITY By KAREN ESQUIVEL A Treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2009 The members of the committee approve the treatise of Karen Esquivel defended on June 19, 2009. ____________________________________ Stanford Olsen Professor Directing Treatise ____________________________________ Alice-Ann Darrow Outside Committee Member ____________________________________ Larry Gerber Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii I dedicate this treatise to: my parents, Anthony and Consuelo Esquivel, who instilled in me a hunger to be my best; my sons, Matthew, Emmanuel and Christian, who have always been my inspiration; my beloved husband, Gustavo Castro, who lovingly supports me, not only in words, but in actions, and shares with me the same passion for family, music and the Lord; and to our Lord, who blesses us with every good gift. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to extend my thanks to my committee members, Dr. Alice-Ann Darrow and Prof. Larry Gerber for their insights and to Prof. Stanford Olsen, for his unending encouragement and ability to cut to the core of each problem. I am grateful for the generosity of the Florida State University Graduate School, which provided me with the means to go to Spain and experience first-hand all that I had only read about in books. Once in Spain, I came in contact with many people who shared their gifts and stories with me. My special thanks go to the anthropologists Maria Rubio and Paz Civantos, who invited my husband and me into their home, spending sleepless nights in musings about Andalucía, the gypsies and music. My deepest respect and appreciation goes to Pedro Amaro, cantaor, who claimed us as family and took us to our first juerga. My gratitude also goes to: Marta Herrera, soprano and musicology student, for her time and enthusiasm; Victor Sánchez, for taking time to share his vast knowledge of Spanish opera; Ramón Regidor, for providing me with a rare copy of the Rosario Pi version of El Gato Montés; and finally, María Luz González and Emilio Casares, from the Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, for dozens of correspondences, sharing from years of experience in Spanish opera and for their unexpected generosity in furnishing scores and recordings. Their passion for Spanish music is inspiring. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………. vi List of Musical Examples……….…………………………………………………………….. vii Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………... ix 1. CHAPTER 1: A Missed Opportunity: The Beginnings of Spanish Opera………………… 1 2. CHAPTER 2: Nationalism in Spanish Opera in the Face of Foreign Influences………….. 5 3. CHAPTER 3: A Burning Desire in an Ocean of Indifference……………………………... 15 4. CHAPTER 4: Manuel Penella and His Adventures in Lyric Composition………………... 21 5. CHAPTER 5: El Gato Montés: The Opera, its Characters and Storyline…………………. 26 5.1 Character list……………………………………………………………... 27 5.2 Storyline………………………………………………………………….. 28 5.3 Analysis…………………………………………………………………... 33 6. CHAPTER 6: El Gato Montés and its Reflection of Andalusian Society…………………. 40 7. CHAPTER 7: Gitanos, Cante Flamenco and Duende: The Bared Soul of Andalucía…….. 44 8. CHAPTER 8: The Corrida and its Pasodoble……………………………………………... 50 9. CHAPTER 9: The Concept of the “Españolada”- the Barriers Against the Critical Success of El Gato Montés and Spanish Opera…………………………….. 62 10. CHAPTER 10: Summary………………………………………………………………….. 67 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………. 68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH…………………………………………………………………… 71 v LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Photograph of a panel of wall from the Alhambra palace……………………………… 12 5.1 Original edition of El Gato Montés…………………………………………………….. 26 8.1 Torero and bull…………………………………………………………………………. 50 8.2 Banderillero with capote……………………………………………………………….. 52 8.3 Picador with puya………………………………………………………………………. 53 8.4 Banderillero……………………………………………………………………………. 54 8.5 Torero with muleta and estoque………………………….…………………………….. 55 vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES Chapter Five: Example 5:1. Act I, Scene I, meas. 1-8………………………………………………………… 35 Example 5:2. Act I, Scene I, meas. 26-30……………………………………………………… 35 Example 5:3. Act I, Scene I, meas. 324-327…………………………………………………… 36 Example 5:4. Act I, Scene I, meas. 362-366…………………………………………………… 36 Example 5:5. Act I, Scene I, meas. 647-651…………………………………………………… 37 Example 5:6. Act I, Scene I, meas. 668-672…………………………………………………… 37 Example 5:7. Act I, Scene I, meas. 989-993…………………………………………………… 38 Example 5:8. Act I, Scene I, meas. 1222-1225………………………………………………… 38 Example 5:9. Act I, Scene I, meas. 1347-1350………………………………………………… 39 Example 5:10. Act I, Scene I, meas. 1430-1433……………………………………………….. 39 Chapter Seven: Example 7:1. Act I, Scene I, meas. 1556-1562………………………………………………… 47 Example 7:2. Act I, Scene I, meas. 1169-1172………………………………………………… 48 Chapter Eight: Example 8:1. Act I, Scene I, meas. 210-213…………………………………………………… 56 Example 8:2. Act I, Scene I, meas. 486-496…………………………………………………… 57 Example 8:3. Act II, Scene I, meas. 268-285…………………………………………………... 58 Example 8:4. Act II, Scene II, meas. 367-382………………………………………………….. 59 vii Example 8:5. Act II, Scene II, meas. 383-390………………………………………………….. 59 Example 8:6. Act II, Scene II, meas. 411-435………………………………………………….. 60 viii ABSTRACT The task of creating Spanish opera in a musical environment which was hostile and critical has been a consternation and challenge for almost every Spanish composer with a desire to create a Spanish national operatic identity. The opera El Gato Montés, by composer-librettist Manuel Penella Moreno (1880-1939) premiered in 1916. The work achieved great public success in and outside of Spain, including a 10 week sold-out performance run in New York City in 1920. Penella‟s talent for composing lovely melodies is manifest in the music for El Gato Montés. The libretto is dramatic and effective. Its appeal to the public at large was demonstrated with its triumphant premiere and following successful performances. Ultimately, this opera met the same fate as the great majority of Spanish operas. It was set aside and forgotten. The only exception to this pattern was Manuel de Falla‟s (1876-1946) La vida breve (1913). The purpose of this study is to present Penella‟s El Gato Montés as an exceptional example of Spanish opera and present a brief history of the development of this genre, from its birth with the opera La púrpura de la rosa by Juan Hidalgo de Polanca in 1660, through the premiere of El Gato Montés in 1916. An analysis of the work will identify and discuss the variety of characteristics of Spanish society, culture and music which are incorporated in the opera, and make the opera a distinctly Spanish work. These characteristics include: the representation of Catholic morality and customs, machismo, familial aspects of a matriarchal society, the gypsies of Southern Spain and their cante flamenco, and the bullfight with its associated musical form, the pasodoble. Several of the criticisms that appeared at the time of the opera‟s premiere will be discussed, including the accusation that the opera was nothing more than an “españolada,” an artificial caricature of the true Spain. It is the author‟s opinion that El Gato Montés is a work worthy of consideration as an important contribution to Spanish music and the operatic repertoire. ix CHAPTER ONE A MISSED OPPORTUNITY: THE BEGINNINGS OF SPANISH OPERA Spain appears to have been detached from the cultural developments in Italy and France, be it by some form of voluntary aloofness and protectionism, or perhaps geographical by isolation, similar to that of England, with its own delayed development of an operatic style. There is some question as to whether the Spanish were truly interested in procuring their own operatic tradition, with the integration of their own native musical idioms. Louise Stein, a musicologist who has provided many insights into the development of Spanish musical theater, has explained the lack of prestige musicians suffered that seems to have been a prevalent attitude in Spain during the early development of opera in the seventeenth century. She affirms, in regards to the musicians‟ cultural endeavors: Spanish musicians have left us virtually no self-conscious literature describing their lives, their thoughts about music, or their aesthetic priorities. By themselves, these facts reveal a great deal about the subordinate position of the musicians in Spanish society, in comparison to the dramatists and stage designers with whom they worked. The leaders in cultural affairs, the thinkers who left unmistakable marks on their society, were writers, dramatists, and visual artists, not musicians.1 Ms. Stein also states: …opera in Spain was nearly always received as a genre supported by the elite and promoted by foreigners, such that its status as an “appropriate” national genre has been a matter of continued controversy…Since opera has generally been considered the greatest 1 Stein, Louise K. Songs of Mortals, dialogues of the Gods: