Zarzuela (Spanish pronunciation:[θaɾˈθwela]) is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporatingoperatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of a royal hunting lodge, thePalace of Zarzuela, near Madrid, where that type of entertainment was allegedly first presented to the court.[1] The palace in turn was named after thebrambles (zarzas) that grew there.
There are two main forms ofzarzuela:Baroquezarzuela (c. 1630 – c. 1750), the earliest style, andRomanticzarzuela (c. 1850 – c. 1950). Romantic zarzuelas can be further divided into two main subgenres,género grande andgénero chico, although other sub-divisions exist.
Zarzuela spread to the Spanish dominions, and many Spanish-speaking countries – notablyCuba – developed their own traditions.Zarzuela is also a strong tradition in thePhilippines, where it is also referred to in certain languages assarswela/sarsuela.[2] Other regional and linguistic variants in Spain include theBasquezartzuela and theCatalansarsuela.
Amasque-like musical theatre had existed in Spain since the time ofJuan del Encina. Thezarzuela genre was innovative in giving a dramatic function to the musical numbers, which were integrated into the plot of the work. Dances and choruses were incorporated as well as solo and ensemble numbers, all to orchestral accompaniment.
In 1657 at the Royal Palace ofEl Prado, KingPhilip IV of Spain, Queen Mariana and their court attended the first performance of a new comedy byPedro Calderón de la Barca, with music byJuan Hidalgo de Polanco titledEl Laurel de Apolo (The Laurels of Apollo).El Laurel de Apolo traditionally symbolises the birth of a new musical genre that had become known asLa Zarzuela.
Like Calderón de la Barca's earlierEl golfo de las sirenas (The Sirens' Gulf, 1657),El Laurel de Apolo mixed mythological verse drama with operatic solos, popular songs and dances. The characters in these early,baroquezarzuelas were a mixture of gods, mythological creatures and rustic or pastoral comedy characters;Antonio de Literes's popularAcis y Galatea (1708) is yet another example. Unlike some other operatic forms, there were spoken interludes, often in verse.
In 18th-centuryBourbon Spain, Italian artistic style dominated in the arts, includingItalian opera.Zarzuela, though still written to Spanish texts, changed to accommodate the Italian vogue. During the reign of KingCharles III, political problems provoked a series of revolts against his Italian ministers; these were echoed in theatrical presentations. The older stylezarzuela fell out of fashion, but popular Spanish tradition continued to manifest itself in shorter works, such as the single-scenetonadilla (orintermezzo) of which the finest literary exponent wasRamón de la Cruz. Musicians such asAntonio Rodríguez de Hita were proficient in the shorter style of works, though he also wrote a full-scalezarzuela with de la Cruz entitledLas segadoras de Vallecas (The Reapers of Vallecas, 1768).José Castel was one of several composers to write for theTeatro del Príncipe.
In the 1850s and 1860s a group of patriotic writers and composers led byFrancisco Barbieri andJoaquín Gaztambide revived thezarzuela form, seeing in it a possible release from French and Italian music hegemony. The elements of the work continue to be the same: sung solos and choruses, spiced with spoken scenes, and comedic songs, ensembles and dances.Costume dramas and regional variations abound, and thelibrettos (though often based on French originals) are rich in Spanish idioms and popular jargon.
Thezarzuelas of the day included in their librettos various regionalisms and popular slang, such as that of Madridcastizos. Often, the success of a work was due to one or more songs that the public came to know and love. Despite some modifications the basic structure of thezarzuela remained the same: dialogue scenes, songs, choruses, and comic scenes generally performed by two actor-singers. The culminating masterpieces from this period were Barbieri'sPan y toros and Gaztambide'sEl juramento. Another notable composer from this period wasEmilio Arrieta.
After theGlorious Revolution of 1868, the country entered a deep crisis (especially economically), which was reflected in theatre. The public could not afford high-priced theatre tickets for grandiose productions, which led to the rise of theTeatros Variedades ("variety theatres") in Madrid, with cheap tickets for one-act plays (sainetes). This "theatre of an hour" had great success andzarzuela composers took to the new formula with alacrity. Single-actzarzuelas were classified asgénero chico ("little genre") whilst the longerzarzuelas of three acts, lasting up to four hours, were calledgénero grande ("grand genre").Zarzuela grande battled on at the Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid, founded by Barbieri and his friends in the 1850s. A newer theatre, the Apolo, opened in 1873. At first it attempted to present thegénero grande, but it soon yielded to the taste and economics of the time, and became the "temple" of the more populistgénero chico in the late 1870s.
Musical content from this era ranges from full-scale operatic arias (romanzas) through to popular songs, and dialogue from high poetic drama to lowlifecomedy characters. There are also many types ofzarzuela in between the two named genres, with a variety of musical and dramatic flavours.
Many of the greatestzarzuelas were written in the 1880s and 1890s.Felipe Pérez y González [es]'s zarzuelaLa Gran Vía (1886) is considered a masterpiece of thegénero chico genre of Spanish plays.[3] The form continued to adapt to new theatrical stimuli until well into the 20th century. With the onset of theSpanish Civil War, the form rapidly declined, and the last romanticzarzuelas to hold the stage were written in the 1950s.
Whilst Barbieri produced the influentialzarzuela grandeEl barberillo de Lavapiés, the classic exponent of thegénero chico was his pupilFederico Chueca, whoseLa gran vía (composed withJoaquín Valverde Durán) was a cult success both in Spain and throughout Europe.
The musical heir of Chueca wasJosé Serrano, whose short, one actgénero chicozarzuelas - notablyLa canción del olvido,Alma de dios and the much laterLos claveles andLa dolorosa - form a stylistic bridge to the more musically sophisticatedzarzuelas of the 20th century.
Just as romanticzarzuela featured popular customs, festivals, and manners of speech, especially those of the poor areas of Madrid, many feature strong social criticism and reflect political polemics of the day.[4]
From about 1900, the termgénero ínfimo ("degraded" or "low genre") was coined to describe an emerging form of entertainment allied to therevista (revue) type of musical comedy: these were musical works similar to thegénero chico zarzuela but lighter and bolder in their social criticism,[5] with scenes portraying sexual themes and many verbal double entendres. One popular work from thegénero ínfimo years isLa corte de Faraón (1910), byVicente Lleó, which was based on the French operettaMadame Putiphar.
In the second decade of the century, the influences of Vienneseoperetta and the English followers ofSullivan such asLionel Monckton[6] made themselves felt, in works such asMolinos de viento andEl asombro de Damasco (both byPablo Luna), before the Spanish tradition of great acts was reasserted inAmadeu Vives'sDoña Francisquita (1923). The zarzuela continued to flourish in the 1930s, thanks to composers of the stature ofPablo Sorozábal – who reinvigorated it as a vehicle for socio-political comment –Federico Moreno Torroba, andFrancisco Alonso.
However, theSpanish Civil War brought a decline of the genre, and after the Second World War, its extinction as a live genre was almost total. There were no new authors and the compositions are not renovated. There have been no significant new works created since the 1950s; the existing zarzuela repertoire is costly to produce, and many classics have been performed only sporadically in recent years, at least professionally.
The genre has again found favour in Spain and elsewhere: younger people, in particular, have been drawn to its lyrical music and theatrical spectacle in the 1940s and 1950s. Spanish radio and television have dedicated time to zarzuela in 1978, not least in a popular series of programs produced byTVE and entitledAntología de la zarzuela ("Zarzuela Anthology"). These were based onlip syncs of the classic recordings of the 1940s and 1950s. Some years earlier,impresarioJosé Tamayo worked a theatrical show of the same name which popularized pieces of zarzuela through several national and international tours.[7]
While thezarzuela tradition flourished inMadrid and other Spanish cities,Catalonia developed its ownzarzuela, with librettos inCatalan. The atmosphere, the plots, and the music were quite different from the model that triumphed in Madrid, as the Catalanzarzuela was looking to attract a different public, the bourgeois classes. Catalanzarzuela was turned little by little into what is called, in Catalan,teatre líric català ("Catalan lyric theater"), with a personality of its own, and withmodernista lyricists and composers such asEnric Granados orEnric Morera.
In the final years of the 19th century, asmodernisme emerged, one of the notablemodernistas, and one ofFelip Pedrell's pupils,Amadeu Vives came onto the Barcelona scene. He contributed to the creation of theOrfeó Català in 1891, along withLluís Millet. In spite of a success sustained over many years, his musical ambition took him to Madrid, wherezarzuela had a higher profile. Vives became one of the most importantzarzuela composers, with such masterpieces asDoña Francisquita.
In Cuba theafrocubanismozarzuelas ofErnesto Lecuona (María la O;El cafetal),Eliseo Grenet (La virgen morena) andGonzalo Roig (Cecilia Valdés, based onCirilo Villaverde's classic novel) represent a brief golden age of political and cultural importance. These and other works centred on the plight of themulata woman and other black underclasses in Cuban society. The outstanding star of many of these productions wasRita Montaner.
Mexico likewise had its ownzarzuela traditions. One example isCarlo Curti'sLa cuarta plana, starringEsperanza Iris.[8]
In thePhilippines, theZarzuela Musical Theatre has been widely adapted by Filipinos in their native cultures, notably in urban areas. The theatre was only introduced by the Spanish in 1878, despite being part of theSpanish Empire since the middle of the 16th century.[citation needed] During this time, the plays were performed only by Spanish people. By 1880, majority of the performers and writers were Filipinos, notably Philippine national hero,José Rizal, who was fond of the play.[9][10] Afterwards, local languages, instead of Spanish, were used to perform the complex theatre, with additions from multiple cultures throughout the archipelago.[according to whom?]
When the Philippines was colonized by the Americans in the early 20th century, the humor from themoro-moro play was added into the Philippine zarzuela, while moving away from the traditional Spanish zarzuela. The theatre afterwards was used by Filipinos to express freedom from discrimination and colonial rule, depicting the Filipino people triumphant against the Spanish and Americans by the end of each play. The revolutionary overtones of the play prompted the American colonialists to arrest various performers and writers of the Philippine zarzuela, to the extent of forcefully shutting down entire zarzuela companies in the Philippines. In the 1920s, due to the introduction of the cinema, the zarzuela became widely popular in the rural areas, disabling the Americans from stopping the plays from spreading. The Philippine zarzuela evolved into a kind of comedy of manners distinct to the Filipino taste. In 2011, the performing art was cited by theNational Commission for Culture and the Arts as one of the intangible cultural heritage of the Philippines under the performing arts category that the government may nominate in theUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. In 2012, through a partnership with UNESCO, the Philippine government established the documents needed for the safeguarding of the Philippine zarzuela. UNESCO has cited the Philippine zarzuela as the national theatre and opera of the Philippines.[11]
From 1950 onwards,zarzuela prospered in a series of LP recordings from EMI,Hispavox and others, with worldwide distribution. A series produced by the Alhambra company of Madrid, the majority conducted by the leading Spanish conductorAtaulfo Argenta had particular success. Many featured singers soon to become world-famous, such asTeresa Berganza,Alfredo Kraus andPilar Lorengar; and later,Montserrat Caballé andPlácido Domingo. Less known performers such as Ana María Iriarte, Inés Ribadeneira, Toñy Rosado, Carlos Munguía, Renato Cesari, and others frequently lent their voices to the recordings. The choirs of Orfeón Donostiarra and Singers' Choir of Madrid also contributed, rounding out the overall quality of the works. After Argenta's death others such asIndalecio Cisneros andRafael Frühbeck de Burgos continued in his footsteps. There were also recordings made conducted by the composers themselves, such asPablo Sorozábal andFederico Moreno Torroba. Many well-known singers, includingVictoria de los Ángeles, Montserrat Caballé,Juan Diego Flórez, andLisette Oropesa have recorded albums of zarzuela songs and arias.
Many zarzuela productions are now to be seen onDVD andBlu-ray disc. In March 2009, EuroArts releasedAmor, Vida de Mi Vida, a recording on Blu-ray disc of an August 2007 zarzuela concert by Plácido Domingo andAna María Martínez, with theMozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg conducted byJesús López-Cobos.[12] In April 2009, BBC/Opus Arte released a Blu-ray disc of a July 2006 performance ofFederico Moreno Torroba'sLuisa Fernanda with Plácido Domingo andNancy Herrera, recorded at theTeatro Real de Madrid with Jesús López-Cobos conducting.[13]
In the United States, the Jarvis Conservatory of Napa, California, between 1996 and 2005, mounted several full zarzuela productions, subsequently issued on DVD and online. The series includesLa dolorosa;La Gran Via;Luisa Fernanda;La verbena de la Paloma;La Rosa del Azafrán;La revoltosa;Agua, Azucarillos y Aguardiente;Doña Francisquita;Gigantes y Cabezudos;La alegría de la huerta;La chulapona;Luis Alonso (Giménez, 1896); andEl barberillo de Lavapiés.[14]
Zarzuela, princ. S. XVII: el nombre de esta representación lírico-dramática viene, según algunos, del Real Sitio de la Zarzuela, donde se representaría la primera, pero la historia del vocablo no se ha averiguado bien y en su primera aparición es nombre de una danza.
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