The Golden Age of Spanish Theatre

Vicente Carducho. The Annunciation. 1616.

ANSWERS

In ictu oculi ("In the blink of an eye"), a vanitas

by Juan de Valdés Leal

During this time, El Greco and Velazquez painted their masterpieces, and Cervantes wrote Don Quixote.

Theatre also thrived with plays that rivaled those of Elizabethan and

Jacobean dramatists.

Before the Golden Age, Spain

was actually under Muslim rule

until Christians armies

took over after winning the

Battle of Granada in 1492.

IN

BOLD

El Greco

Visión del Apocalipsis aka Opening of the Fifth Seal

1614

Greco & Velazquez

And who?

DID YOU KNOW?

The difference between the two artists are their upbringings.

Greco was born in Greece, while Velazquez was born and raised and died in Spain?

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is one of the most recognized Spanish authors largely due to the success of his novel Don Quijote de la Mancha, published in 1580. However, Cervantes did not have the easiest upbringing. There is no record of his birth, but it's known that his family traveled alot and he was the 4th of seven children. Cervantes had no formal, or if any, very little, formal education. Moving to Rome in his adult years hoping to start his writing career, he joined the navy in Naples instead. He enjoyed his time in the ranks, despite sustaiing a wound to his chest and a debilitating wound to his left hand. After fighting in the Gulf of Lepanto, he was captured by pirates and enslaved in Algiers for 5 years. After being freed with the help of his family he would eventually marry in 1584, but have a duaghter from an affair with an actress. After, he would leave his wife and find himself in jail multiple times, once for murder. (never tried)

A depiction of Ferdinand and Isabella dated 1492. Spain has deep commercial ties to Latin America and a close understanding of Europe’s relationships with Africa

Autos Sacramentales

These dramas celebrated the mystery of the Eucharist by mixing the human, supernatural, and allegorical.

They were performed in two or four carros (two-story wagons) in parades around Madrid and other cities as part of the Corpus Christi processions.

They were produced by trade guilds until the mid-sixteenth century when municipal authorities produced them at great expense.

They were performed by professional acting troupes and mixed civic and religious authority.

The Corrales

Professional public theater was established in Spain’s major cities during the 1570s.

The Corral de la Cruz, built in 1579, was Madrid’s first permanent theater.

Corrales originated from courtyard performances, and were constructed within rectangular courtyards enclosed by buildings on three sides. The stage was raised with a permanent backdrop, and a patio for standing spectators was placed in the upper levels.

Alojerias were refreshment booths and above them were galleries for more spectators: cazuelas (reserved for women), and aposentos (box seats).

Audiences were often lively and unruly.

Corrales were originally licensed to charitable organizations, which used performance to support hospitals and aid the poor.

During Philip's reign, Spanish theater began to transform. What had been a pastime dominated by wandering troupes of minstrel-like performers became professional drama, performed in corrales, or permanent theaters. The first of these was the Corral de la Cruz in Madrid, which opened in 1579. Corrales were used to raise money for hospitals and other charities, giving them a moralistic function.

The biggest difference between Elizabethan English acting companies and Spanish companies was the inclusion of women as performers.

Cervantes, Don Quixote

El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes was the first novel published in Europe. This gave Cervantes a status comparable to his English counterpart, Shakespeare. Don Quixote resembled both the medieval, chivalric romances of an earlier time and the novels of the early modern world. It parodied classical morality and chivalry, found comedy in knighthood, and criticized social structures and the perceived madness of Spain's rigid society.

Lope de Vega, Spanish Drama

A contemporary of Cervantes, Lope de Vega consolidated the essential genres and structures which would characterize the Spanish commercial drama, also known as the "Comedia", throughout the 17th century. While Lope de Vega wrote prose and poetry as well, he is best remembered for his plays, particularly those grounded in Spanish history. Like Cervantes, Lope de Vega served with the Spanish army and was fascinated with the Spanish nobility. In the hundreds of plays he wrote, with settings ranging from the Biblical times to legendary Spanish history to classical mythology to his own time, Lope de Vega frequently took a comical approach just as Cervantes did, taking a conventional moral play and dressing it up in good humor and cynicism.

Lope de Rueda

Lope de Rueda was a Spanish dramatist and author, regarded by some as the best of his era. A versatile writer, he also wrote comedies, farces, and pasos. He was the precursor to what is considered the golden age of Spanish literature.

His works were issued posthumously in 1567 by Timoneda, who toned down certain passages in the texts.

He disdained the use of bombastic language and what he considered an excessive use of deus ex machina by other playwrights.

His predecessors mostly wrote for courtly audiences or for the study; de Rueda with his strollers created a taste for the drama which he was able to gratify, and he is admitted both by Cervantes and Lope de Vega to be the true founder of the national theatre.

Playwrights and their Plays

Ana Caro de Mallen: Valor, Agravio y Mujer (Courage, Betrayal, and a Woman Scorned), El conde Partinuplés (Count Partinuples)

Felicia Enriquez de Guzman: Los jardines y campos sabeos (The Sabean Gardens and Countryside)

Lope de Rueda: Las accitunas (The Olive Trees), Cornudo y contento (Cuckolded and Content), El condidado (The Guest), Los criados (The Servants), and Los lacayos lardones (The Thieving Lackeys)

Lope de Vega: El maestro de danzar (The Dancing Master)

Los locos de Valencia (Madness in Valencia)

El acero de Madrid (The Steel of Madrid)

El perro del Hortelano (The Gardener's Dog, a variation of The Dog in the Manger fable)