An Intercultural Exploration of a Spanish Musical Form
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An intercultural exploration of a Spanish musical form Alejandro Postigo Gómez Submitted for PhD Examination on 30th September 2018 The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7922-8953 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Alejandro Postigo Gómez, declare that this thesis is composed by me and that all the work herein is my own, unless explicitly attributed to others. This work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Signed: …………………………………………………. Name: Alejandro Postigo Gómez Date: 30th September 2018 Material drawn from sections of this thesis have been published, or are forthcoming, in the following book chapters and articles: Book chapters: Postigo Gomez, Alejandro (2019). ‘The evolution of musical theatre in Spain throughout the 20th and 21st centuries’ in Reframing the Musical: Race, Culture, and Identity, ed. by Sarah Whitfield. London: Red Globe Press, pp. 111-128. Postigo Gomez, Alejandro (2018). ‘A political evolution of copla’ in Music on Stage Volume III, edited by Fiona Jane Schopf. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 155-171. Postigo Gomez, Alejandro (2016). ‘New insights into the notion of interculturalism and hybridity in musical theatre’ in Music on Stage Volume II, ed. by Fiona Jane Schopf. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 96-110. Postigo Gomez, Alejandro (2014). ‘Rediscovering Spanish musical theatre: exploring an intercultural adaptation of copla’ in Music on Stage Volume I, ed. by Fiona Jane Schopf. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 184-197. Journal Articles: Postigo Gomez, Alejandro and Naz Yeni (2018). ‘In conversation: crossovers and connections between new writing, exile and migration in Spanish and Turkish traditions’. Book 2.0, 8 (1-2), pp. 85-100. Postigo Gomez, Alejandro (2017). ‘El musical del siglo XXI’. Fundación Juan March, Ensayos de teatro musical español, 19 (march.es). Postigo Gomez, Alejandro (2015). ‘The Copla Musical: exchanges between English and Spanish musical theatre’. Acotaciones, 34, pp. 53-81. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Maria Delgado for her support and dedication throughout the last stages of the research process. She has been an honest, dedicated and solid guiding hand, and this thesis owes much to her intelligent supervision. I take this opportunity to also thank the following scholars who have supervised this thesis at various stages: Tara McAllister-Viel, Zachary Dunbar and Stephe Harrop. Many thanks to Tony Fisher for believing in this project from the start and serving as an encouraging presence in seeing it through to completion, and thanks to Central's research community for creating a supportive environment for this project. I am grateful to Fundación La Caixa, Comunidad de Madrid and the Board of Governors at Central for their financial support of this project. I also owe a debt of thanks to Arts Council England, the Cultural Office of the Spanish Embassy, Anglia Ruskin University, Taylor-Gaunt Productions and the Collisions Festival for their financial support in the development of the practice. A special mention goes to all the festivals and performance venues that have offered their resources to this practice. A very special thank you to all the collaborators who have helped the development of the practice. There are too many to list here, but you will find their names in the appendix of this thesis. I want to thank especially Violeta García, who has accompanied this project since its first creation in 2011, and played for La Gitana around the world. Special thanks as well to those collaborators that joined the project to stay, and help shape the practice through various iterations: Kimon Pallikaropoulos, Enrique Muñoz, Andrea Jiménez, Tian Glasgow, and the long etcetera of creative minds that have shared their passion and talent, and generously put time and effort to bring to life The Copla Musical in all its shapes and forms. Thank you to Jane Schopf for finding in in this research a valuable source of artistic and intellectual dissemination worth publishing in all three volumes of Music on Stage. Thank you too to Sarah Whitfield and the journals Acotaciones, Fundación Juan March and Book 2.0 for publishing parts of this research in different edited collections. And thank you to all the conferences that have invited me to disseminate this research around the world. A very special thank you to Manuel Rey for sharing his passion of copla and giving me the first opportunities to test English copla with his Spanish audiences. Thank you as well to Ignacio Jassa Haro for sharing his knowledge of Zarzuela with me. Finally, I would like to thank my partner, family and friends who have constantly encouraged the completion of this PhD project across the years. 3 ABSTRACT This Practice-as-Research thesis, The Copla Musical, explores an intercultural adaptation of the 20th-century Spanish folkloric song-form of copla. Enjoying great popularity during the mid-20th century, copla’s influence waned in the latter years of the Franco regime. It remains, however, a strong marker of Spanish cultural identity through nostalgic musical preservation. This project investigates copla’s roots as a storytelling form, its position as a folkloric genre and its role as a subversive tool in the Spanish 20th-century zeitgeist. It asks new questions of copla, by documenting and analysing the process of sharing my experience of this musical form with audiences outside Spain, testing the findings in an iterative context. Merging copla with elements found in Anglo-American musical theatre structures such as book musicals, revues and jukebox shows, The Copla Musical shows the ways in which this cultural form can be appropriated within an alternative theatrical and socio-political context. The numerous performances documented and commented on in the thesis allow for a discussion of divergent forms of musical theatre, audience engagement and cultural difference. Chapter 1 (Positioning copla) presents a history of musical theatre in Spain, framing copla in relation to Anglophone developments of musical theatre. Chapter 2 (Adapting copla) analyses the theoretical framework to my practice: translation, intercultural and queer theories, and their influence on the practical elements of the thesis. Chapter 3 (Making copla) explores resonances of the practice in its various presentations. The thesis is accompanied by a series of appendices and a website which documents the evolution and iterations of the practice (www.thecoplamusical.com). In its totality, the project demonstrates the possibilities for copla to be appropriated as a musical form that can travel beyond its Spanish roots. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration of authorship 2 Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 INTRODUCTION 7 Presenting the rationale: why a copla musical? 7 Contextualising the researcher 10 Organisation of the thesis 12 Chapter 1: Positioning copla 13 Chapter 2: Adapting copla 15 Chapter 3: Making copla 17 Conclusion and appendices 19 CHAPTER 1: POSITIONING COPLA: FRAMING COPLA WITHIN MODELS OF 21 SPANISH AND ANGLOPHONE MUSICAL THEATRE 1.1. Labelling the historical development of Spanish musical theatre 21 1.1.1. The zarzuela and its forerunners: opera and tonadilla escénica 23 1.1.2. The revista (revue) 31 1.1.3. The (global) musical 35 1.2. What is copla? 40 1.2.1. Terminology: the coining of the genre 40 1.2.2. Definition and features 42 1.2.3. Origins and background 46 1.2.4. Historical evolution 48 1.3. Historical parallels between copla and Anglo-American paradigms 56 CHAPTER 2. ADAPTING COPLA: FRAMING THE TRANSLATION, 62 INTERCULTURAL AND QUEER INPUTS IN THE MAKING OF THE COPLA MUSICAL 2.1. Translation theories 62 2.1.1. Foreignizing / domesticating debate 66 2.1.2. Translating copla: the case of rhyme and rhythm 71 2.2. Negotiating an intercultural adaptation 79 2.2.1. Definition and perspectives 79 2.2.2. Views and positions of interculturalism 81 2.2.3. Intercultural terminology 84 2.2.4. Models of reference: Ortiz, Lo and Gilbert and Pavis’ hourglass 86 2.2.5. An introduction to our intercultural process 88 2.2.6 The Performance of English copla 90 5 2.3. Queer considerations 92 2.3.1. Queer theory applied to musical theatre 94 2.3.2. A Spanish contextualisation of queer 100 2.3.3. The role of copla as marker of gender identity 102 CHAPTER 3. MAKING COPLA: ARTICULATING THEORY THROUGH PRACTICE 109 3.1. First iteration: The Copla Musical as a ‘conventional’ book musical (2011-13) 110 3.1.1. Dramaturgical principles of The Copla Musical 113 3.1.2. Musical aspects of the production 118 3.1.2.1. The jukebox rationale 118 3.1.2.2. Song classifications 121 A) Character songs 121 B) Songs with Narrative Functions 123 C) Diegetic songs and musical style 126 3.2.2.3. Music and lyrical concerns 129 A) Grammatical constructions 130 B) Metrics and Semantics 131 3. 2. Second iteration: The Solo (2014-17) 134 3.2.1. A Queer analysis 136 3.2.1.1. Queer influences 137 3.2.1.2. Spanish Camp 140 3.3. Third iteration: The Cabaret (2015-17) 145 3.3.1. The cabaret as Practice-as-Research format 146 3.3.2. The intercultural exchange 148 3.3.3. English copla 150 3.3.4. My position 152 CONCLUSIONS 154 BIBLIOGRAPHY 160 APPENDIX A: LIST OF PERFORMANCES AND COLLABORATORS 170 APPENDIX B: SCRIPTS 174 The Copla Musical 174 The Copla Solo 220 The Copla Cabaret 233 APPENDIX C: SAMPLE OF AUDIENCE EVALUATIONS 241 6 INTRODUCTION The Copla Musical: An intercultural exploration oF a Spanish musical Form is a Practice- as-Research doctoral project that involves the translation and integration of Spanish copla songs into newly devised narratives that question the political relevance of the copla genre and its current socio-political position in the 21st century.