From Literary Page to Musical Stage
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From Literary Page to Musical Stage: Writers, Librettists, and Composers of Zarzuela and Opera in Spain and Spanish America (1875-1933) Victoria Felice Wolff McGill University, Montreal May 2008 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the degree of PhD in Hispanic Studies © Victoria Felice Wolff 2008 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to formally thank all of those individuals who have supported me during my graduate studies at McGill University and who have helped me see this project through to completion. First and foremost, I would like to thank Professor José R. Jouve-Martín for his guidance, constant encouragement, and sage counsel. His unwavering dedication not only to this project, but also to all of his students in general, the department, and to the profession as a whole is much appreciated. Professor Jouve-Martín has been an incredible mentor, a professional to emulate, and for all of his assistance, he has my most heartfelt gratitude. I would also like to thank the Chair of the Department of Hispanic Studies, Professor Jesús Pérez-Magallón, and both the current and past Directors of Graduate Studies in the department, Professor K.M. Sibbald and Professor Amanda Holmes, for their continued support, encouraging words, and advice. Moreover, I also give sincere thanks to Professor Fernanda Macchi, especially for drawing my attention to her work on Cuban zarzuela, and to Professor David Boruchoff. I greatly appreciate the mentorship of Lucia Chamanadjian, the language coordinator in the Department of Hispanic Studies, and the kindness of Donetta Hines as well. Furthermore, I would like to express thanks to the following individuals and parties: My fellow classmates and colleagues, especially Rossana Fialdini- ii Zambrano, Valerie Maurer, and Viviana Alonso; the languages and literatures support staff comprised of Brigitte Weiss-Dittmann, Annie Lisi, Dimitris Karantanis, David Rosemen, and most especially, Lynda Bastien; Maria de Souza, Elizabeth Dunkley, Valerie Mayman, and especially Francisco Uribe and Janice Simpkins at the Interlibrary Loan Office of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; McGill Graduate Studies; Christopher Webber, María Luz González Peña of the Sociedad General de Autores y Escritores in Madrid, and Diana Fasoli of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; and finally, my students. Last, but definitely not least, I would like to thank my family: My Father, Theodore Albert Wolff, and my Mother, María Martínez-Wolff, have always been the greatest champions of all that I do and all that I have ever done. My husband, Geordie Shepherd, has shown me an immense love and tireless encouragement, while helping me to see the lighter side of life and making me laugh through it all. To everyone I have mentioned above, and to anyone I may have inadvertently forgotten, my deepest thanks. iii ABSTRACT In this present work, I explore the rise of zarzuela and opera as cultural expressions in both Spain and Spanish America and their relationships to the societies in which they were produced. My research will show that zarzuela and opera became a new space from which to promote a Hispanic musical tradition and to imagine and express the essence of the Hispanic nation, conceived of transnationally, but fundamentally tied to Spain. I specifically study works of Hispanic literature that were rewritten as libretti for performance. The works chosen for this project are La Monja Alférez by Carlos Coello and Miguel Marqués, Pepita Jiménez by Francis Burdett Money-Coutts and Isaac Albéniz, Tabaré by Tomás Breton, Cecilia Valdés by Agustín Rodríguez, José Sánchez- Arcilla, and Gonzalo Roig, and, finally, Adiós a la bohemia by Pío Baroja and Pablo Sorozábal. Librettists and composers working in collaboration searched for a suitable literary medium to express national essence through musical drama. Therefore, the original literature used as the foundations for zarzuela or opera varies from works of Golden Age theater, prose narrative or the novel, epic poetry, the colonial novel, and the short story. Furthermore, in the works chosen, specific themes relevant to the nation are addressed, such as gender, national identity, history and colonialism, race, and modernity. In addition to examining how artistic works are transformed when modified from one genre (the literary) to another (the musical) within a new cultural context, I use a sociological approach iv to investigate the unique collaborations between writers, librettists, and composers in the creation of these musical-dramatic works. As spectacles produced for mass audiences, I also employ performance theory to understand how meaning is constructed through performance. Integral to my study is a discussion of how these artistic creations traversed national boundaries and moved across the Atlantic. The temporal boundaries of this project were defined by the rise in national sentiment after the 1868 Revolution and the first significant shift away from French textual and Italian musical models since the rise of modern zarzuela in the mid-nineteenth century, through to the project of promoting a Spanish national opera tradition, the promotion of native lyric theater on the other side of the Atlantic in an independent Spanish America, and finally, the decline of all forms of musical theater in the twentieth century after the onset of the Spanish Civil War, competition from new media and technologies, and changing aesthetics which focused on music’s abstraction and independence from other art forms. v RÉSUMÉ Le présent travail porte sur l’essor de la zarzuela et de l’opéra en tant qu’expressions culturelles en Espagne et en Amérique hispanique, de même que leur rapport aux sociétés qui les ont vu naître. Je m’intéresse particulièrement aux œuvres de la littérature hispanique adaptées en livret d’opéra. Je tenterai de démontrer que la zarzuela et l’opéra ont créé un nouvel espace pour promouvoir la tradition musicale hispanique, qui permet d’imaginer et d’exprimer l’essence de la nation hispanique, dispersée dans de nombreux pays, mais fondamentalement liée à l’Espagne. J’ai choisi, pour ce projet, La Monja Alférez de Carlos Coello et Miguel Marqués, Pepita Jiménez de Francis Burdett Money-Coutts et Isaac Albéniz, Tabaré de Tomás Bretón, Cecilia Valdés d’Agustín Rodríguez, José Sánchez Arcilla et Gonzalo Roig, et enfin, Adiós a la bohemia de Pío Baroja et Pablo Sorozábal. Des librettistes et des compositeurs se sont associés afin de trouver un médium littéraire approprié pour exprimer l’essence de la nation dans les œuvres musico-dramatiques. Ainsi, les diverses œuvres littéraires à la base de la zarzuela et de l’opéra ont été puisées dans le théâtre du Siècle d’or, la prose narrative et le roman, la poésie épique, le roman colonial et la nouvelle. J’examine en outre dans les œuvres mentionnées ci-dessus les thèmes touchant de près à la nation, notamment le genre, l’identité nationale, l’histoire et le colonialisme, la race et la modernité. En plus d’analyser les transformations que subissent les œuvres artistiques lorsqu’elles sont transposées d’un genre (littéraire) à un autre vi (musical) dans un nouveau contexte culturel, j’observe à l’aide d’une approche sociologique les collaborations uniques entre les écrivains, librettistes et compositeurs ayant créé ces œuvres musico-dramatiques. Je m’appuie également sur la théorie de la performance pour comprendre de quelle manière s’articule le sens lors de la représentation de ces œuvres musico-dramatiques devant le grand public. Tout au long de mon étude, j’évalue dans quelle mesure ces créations artistiques ont traversé les frontières, et même l’Atlantique. Le cadre temporel de la présente étude est défini, d’une part, par la montée du sentiment nationaliste dans la foulée de la Révolution de 1868, première transition majeure ayant favorisé l’essor de la zarzuela moderne au milieu du XIXe siècle après le rejet du modèle textuel français et du modèle musical italien, suivie de la volonté de promouvoir une tradition nationale de l’opéra espagnol et, outre-Atlantique, du théâtre lyrique national dans une Amérique hispanique indépendante, et d’autre part, par le déclin de toutes les formes de théâtre musical au XXe siècle, provoqué par le début de la Guerre civile espagnole, la concurrence des nouveaux médias et des nouvelles technologies, ainsi que l’évolution des critères esthétiques, qui privilégient désormais l’abstraction musicale et le cloisonnement des genres artistiques. vii RESUMEN En el presente trabajo, investigo el surgimiento de la zarzuela y la ópera como formas de expresión cultural en España y en Hispanoamérica y su relación con las sociedades en las que fueron producidas. Mi investigación demostrará que la zarzuela y la ópera se convirtieron en espacios nuevos dentro de los cuales se podía promover una tradición musical hispánica e imaginar y expresar la esencia de la hispanidad, concebida transnacionalmente, pero fundamentalmente ligada a España. A la hora de hacer esto, estudio específicamente algunas obras literarias de la tradición hispánica que fueron adaptadas como libretos para su representación operística. Las obras escogidas para este proyecto son La Monja Alférez de Carlos Coello y Miguel Marqués, Pepita Jiménez de Francis Burdett Money-Coutts e Isaac Albéniz, Tabaré de Tomás Breton, Cecilia Valdés de Agustín Rodríguez, José Sánchez-Arcilla y Gonzalo Roig, y finalmente, Adiós a la bohemia de Pío Baroja y Pablo Sorozábal. Los libretistas y los compositores que trabajaron en colaboración buscaron un medio literario apropiado para expresar la esencia nacional a través del drama musical. Por lo tanto, la literatura original que fue usada como base para la zarzuela y la ópera incluyó tanto obras del teatro del siglo de oro, narrativa o novela, poesía épica, novela colonial, y cuento. Además, en las obras escogidas se han discutido temas específicos relevantes a la nación, como el género, la identidad nacional, la historia y el colonialismo, la raza, y la modernidad.