199- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Swashed up: the Romantic playwrights
Spain’s brief Romantic period reacted against the
constraints of Neoclassicism. And, while literature lacked
a strong native hand, in the theatre the genre produced a
couple of distinguished homegrown playwrights. Ángel de
Saavedra launched full-blown Romanticism on stage with
Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino(1835).The lead character,
Don Álvaro, who ‘accidentally’ kills his lover’s father, is
suitably dark and wild, while the setting and time frame
strayed expressively from the classical unities. It was a
huge success. Romanticism hit a swashbuckling peak with
José Zorrilla’sDon JuanTenorio(1844).Tirso de Molina’s
devious womaniser gained a redemptive twist in Zorrilla’s
hands, forgiven his skirt chasing at the end of the play and
escorted to heaven by an old flame.The play has become
the most famous work of Spanish drama.From Realism to melodrama: theatre’s popular age
Spain began sliding toward Civil War in the second
half of the 19thcentury.Theatre occasionally reflected
society’s widening discord but new drama concentrated
largely on pleasing crowds. It was, after all, still the most
popular form of entertainment going.Alta comediasdrew
good audiences, providing the bourgeoisie and upper
classes with a rather preachy diet of social morality tales.
ManuelTamayo y Baus was the main author; a playwright
who apparently penned his first work aged 11. His best play
wasUn drama nuevo(1867). Set in Elizabethan England, it
outlines the pitfalls of jealousy among a troupe of
Shakespearean players.In a five-year period in
the 1840s, José Zorrilla
wrote 22 plays.4.2.2 Lorca leads the way: Spanish drama
in the modern age