From Literary Page to Musical Stage: Writers, Librettists, and Composers of Zarzuela and Opera in Spain and Spanish America (1875-1933)
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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 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-53325-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-53325-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondares ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada 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 Jose R. Jouve-Martin 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-Martin 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 Jesus Perez-Magallon, 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- n Zarftbrano, 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, Maria Luz Gonzalez Pena of the Sociedad General de Autores y Escritores in Madrid, and Diana - Fasoli of the Teatro Colon 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, Maria Martinez-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. in 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 Alferez by Carlos Coello and Miguel Marques, Pepita Jimenez by Francis Burdett Money-Coutts and Isaac Albeniz, Tabare by Tomas Breton, Cecilia V aides by Agustin Rodriguez, Jose Sanchez- Arcilla, and Gonzalo Roig, and, finally, Adios a la bohemia by Pio Baroja and Pablo Sorozabal. 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 RESUME Le present travail porte sur l'essor de la zarzuela et de l'opera en tant qu'expressions culturelles en Espagne et en Amerique hispanique, de meme que leur rapport aux societes qui les ont vu naitre. Je m'interesse particulierement aux oeuvres de la litterature hispanique adaptees en livret d'opera. Je tenterai de demontrer que la zarzuela et l'opera ont cree un nouvel espace pour promouvoir la tradition musicale hispanique, qui permet d'imaginer et d'exprimer l'essence de la nation hispanique, dispersee dans de nombreux pays, mais fondamentalement liee a l'Espagne. J'ai choisi, pour ce projet, La Monja Alferez de Carlos Coello et Miguel Marques, Pepita Jimenez de Francis Burdett Money-Coutts et Isaac Albeniz, Tabare de Tomas Breton, Cecilia Valdes d'Agustin Rodriguez, Jose Sanchez Arcilla et Gonzalo Roig, et enfin, Adios a la bohemia de Pio Baroja et Pablo Sorozabal. Des librettistes et des compositeurs se sont associes afin de trouver un medium litteraire approprie pour exprimer l'essence de la nation dans les oeuvres musico-dramatiques. Ainsi, les diverses ceuvres litteraires a la base de la zarzuela et de l'opera ont ete puisees dans le theatre du Siecle d'or, la prose narrative et le roman, la poesie epique, le roman colonial et la nouvelle. J'examine en outre dans les oeuvres mentionnees ci-dessus les themes touchant de pres a la nation, notamment le genre, l'identite nationale, l'histoire et le colonialisme, la race et la modernite. En plus d'analyser les transformations que subissent les ceuvres artistiques lorsqu'elles sont transposees d'un genre (litteraire) a un autre (musical) dans un nouveau contexte cultural, j'observe a l'aide d'une approche sociologique les collaborations uniques entre les ecrivains, librettistes et compositeurs ayant cree ces oeuvres musico-dramatiques. Je m'appuie egalement sur la theorie de la performance pour comprendre de quelle maniere s'articule le sens lors de la representation de ces oeuvres musico-dramatiques devant le grand public. Tout au long de mon