The Spanish Lamento: Discourses of Love, Power, and Gender in the Musical Theatre (1696–1718) by Maria Virginia Acuña A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of PhD Musicology Graduate Department of Music University of Toronto © Copyright by Maria Virginia Acuña 2016 The Spanish Lamento: Discourses of Love, Power, and Gender in the Musical Theatre (1696–1718) Maria Virginia Acuña Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Music University of Toronto 2016 Abstract Weeping male characters dominated lamenting scenes in the mythological zarzuela during the tumultuous years surrounding the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). Always played by a woman en travesti, the lamenting male became a stock character in this musical genre, entertaining audiences while allegorically reflecting Madrid’s elite at the turn of the eighteenth century. This dissertation uncovers an as yet unexplored proliferation of male laments in staged drama of the period while addressing a cross-dressing phenomenon in the zarzuela, an aspect that has until now received little attention. Extant zarzuelas from the period 1696–1718 form the core of the dissertation. I explore lamenting traditions in this repertory in relation to contemporary cross-dressing practices, and to contemporary philosophical, literary, gender, and medical discourses. Among the numerous male laments occurring in this repertory, I identify two types: Cupid’s laments, and their allegorical representation of the Spanish monarch and of his struggle for power, and male amorous complaints as a manifestation of philosophical perceptions about love. Finally, discourses of gender inequality are revealed in the analysis of the few female laments appearing in the genre. I suggest that a proliferation of male lamentos during this ii period is symptomatic of the political tensions felt at court. Moreover, I contend that the male lyrical voice that had long dominated the tradition of amorous suffering found a safe conduit for theatrical and lamenting expression in the female performer. Women’s voices and bodies softened the dangerous overtones of feminization carried in the male lamento, thus allowing the lamenting male to become widely accepted. An examination of the zarzuela and its laments helps bring a rich literary, theatrical, and musical tradition into the mainstream while illuminating an under-explored period in the history of Spanish music. iii Acknowledgments As I write these lines, I am overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude for many people who have accompanied me in the course of writing this dissertation. I am incredibly grateful to my advisors, Caryl Clark and Sanda Munjic, two brilliant scholars and exceptional human beings. I would like to thank Caryl, who provided me with an intellectually inspiring research environment over the years and who has offered me no end of encouragement and motivation. I thank Sanda for introducing me to amorous theories and to the literature of suffering love, and for providing unfailing assistance, guidance, and constructive criticism. Thank you both for pushing me to work hard, for challenging me, and for inspiring me, while also offering so much warmth, kindness, and support. I would also like to thank the other members of my advisory committee, Sherry Lee and Mary Ann Parker, for their comments, recommendations, and stimulating conversations. Thanks also to Gregory Johnston for his thoughtful observations and suggestions. A special thanks to Elizabeth Le Guin from The University of California Los Angeles who was a thorough, generous, and insightful reader of this dissertation as its external examiner. Also, I wish to thank my undergraduate and master’s advisor at The University of British Columbia, Gregory Butler, for always supporting me in my choice to research Spanish theatre music and for encouraging me to apply to PhD programs. I would like to acknowledge the financial support received from The University of Toronto in the form of a doctoral fellowship and a doctoral completion grant, and from the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada in the form of a Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Student Doctoral Scholarship. The archival research that informs this iv dissertation was conducted under the auspices of the American Musicological Society and the School of Graduate Studies at The University of Toronto. I am grateful for the opportunity they gave me to travel to Portugal and Spain. During the course of my archival work in Évora and Madrid, several archivists offered their assistance. In particular, I would like to thank José Chitas and Maria Jacinta Penha Canelas at the Biblioteca Pública de Évora and Victoria Mas García in the Sala Barbieri in the Biblioteca Nacional de España. Several colleagues in Spain welcomed me to the field with open arms during my early years of doctoral research: Paulino Capdepón Verdú, Juan José Pastor Comín, Antonio Martín Moreno, Gordon Hart, María Asunción Flórez, and Álvaro Torrente. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge with me and for supporting me in my research. A special thanks to María Asunción Flórez for so many stimulating conversations. I am grateful to friends and colleagues that supported me in various stages of this dissertation: Adana Whitter, Mark Atherton, Kamila Pelka, Tatiana Ramírez, Martin Ritter, Cary García, Kimberley Beck, Christina Hutten, Mary-Claire Gervasoni, Erin Scheffer, and Lysianne Boulva. Thank you for patiently listening to me talk about my research, for offering me your company and support, for checking in to make sure that I was surviving deadlines as well as other stressful moments of graduate school, and for understanding my moments of absence. Thanks also to Christina Hutten for proofreading my music transcriptions and to Kamila Pelka for offering editorial suggestions of my manuscript. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own. I would like to thank my mother and father, Eleonora Michalko and Marcelo Acuña, and my sister, Gabriela Sismann, for their never-ending support throughout this project and for always being my biggest allies. I love you all more than I can say. v I owe a special thank you to my loving husband, Macklin McFadyen Hill, who, as always, has been a pillar for me to lean on. Thank you for encouraging me to keep working all those times that I felt defeated and for always believing that I could do this. This project would not have been possible without your love and support. Thanks also to our wonderful son, Liam, who arrived at the beginning of this dissertation, making it even more challenging to complete, but whose hugs, kisses, and laughter kept me sane throughout this project. This dissertation is dedicated to you both. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Musical Examples .................................................................................................... x List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiii List of Appendices ........................................................................................................... xiv Introduction Reconstructing the Lamento in the Spanish Mythological Zarzuela ................ 1 Chapter 1 The Early Zarzuela and the Rise of the Spanish Lamento .................................. 26 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 26 1.1 Behind the Scenes: Origins and Creators ....................................................................... 28 1.1.1 The Fiesta Cortesana ...................................................................................................... 29 1.1.2 The Zarzuela .................................................................................................................... 33 1.1.3 The Solo Tonada ............................................................................................................. 35 1.2 The Early Lamento in Spanish Theatre .......................................................................... 37 1.2.1 Lamenting Nymphs in the Early Zarzuela ....................................................................... 42 1.2.2 Lamenting Male Deities (Venir el amor al mundo) ......................................................... 55 1.3 The Stage: Theatre Companies and Performers ............................................................ 62 1.3.1 Theatre Troupes and the Tercera Dama (Third Lady) ..................................................... 62 1.3.2 Female and Transvestite Performance ........................................................................... 65 Chapter 2 Omnia Vincit Amor?: Love, Cupid, and Allegories of Monarchic Misgivings ...... 74 2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 74 2.1 Performance History: Productions and Female Performers ........................................... 84 2.2 The Theatrical Experience: Words and Music ................................................................ 91 2.2.1 The Stage: Pedagogy and Power