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Zarzuela

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Template:Otheruses2 Zarzuela (IPA /θar'θwe'la/ in Spain, /sar'swe'la/ in the New World) is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating dances. It is believed that the name derives from a hunting lodge, the Palacio de la Zarzuela, near Madrid where, in the 17th century, this type of performance first occurred before the Spanish royal court.

There are two main forms of zarzuela: Baroque zarzuela (c.1630–1750), the earliest style, and Romantic zarzuela (c.1850–1950), which can be further divided into the two subgenres of género grande and género chico.

The zarzuela (also known as zarzuelta) is also a genre and integral part of Filipino music. It was brought during the period of Spanish colonization by the settlers and friars, and quickly spread to the natives, who adapted it to their tastes.

Musical theatre had already existed in Spain since the time of Juan del Encina. This new genre named zarzuela was innovative in giving a dramatic function to the musical numbers; that is to say, they were integrated into the argument of the work. Other characteristics were the presence of a large orchestra and the incorporation of choruses, songs, and dances.

History

It seems that the earliest authors who applied their skills to this new musical theatre style were Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Calderón was the first playwright to adopt the term zarzuela for his work entitled El golfo de las sirenas (The Gulf of the Sirens, 1657).

Lope de Vega wrote a work titled La selva sin amor, drama con orquesta ("The Loveless Jungle, A Drama with Orchestra"). Lope de Vega called this "something new in Spain". In the prologue to this work he says: "The instruments occupy the front of the theatre without being seen, with the actors singing the verses in harmony, with the musical composition itself evoking wonder, lament, fury and other emotions..." However, the music of La selva does not survive; from this period we have only the music of Los celos hacen estrellas ("Jealousies Turn Into Stars") by Juan Hidalgo and Juan Vélez, which premiered in 1672. That work gives us some sense of what the genre was like in the 17th century.

The 18th century began the rule of the House of Bourbon in Spain, and with it various manifestations of Italian artistic style came into fashion, including music. Zarzuela changed to be more like Italian opera. But beginning with the reign of Bourbon King Charles III, political problems provoked a series of revolts against the Italian ministers, which were echoed in theatrical presentations. Zarzuela once again rooted itself in popular Spanish tradition, works such as the sainetes (or Entr'actes) of Don Ramón de la Cruz. This author's first work in this genre was Las segadoras de Vallecas ("The Reapers of Vallecas, 1768), with music by Rodríguez de Hita.

The peak of zarzuela in the 19th century started in 1839 with the music of Francisco Barbieri and Emilio Arrieta. Often, the success of zarzuelas came about because the public learned the songs from the performances, and they entered the oral culture, as happened with the popular cuplés, literally "couplets", a style of song that exists in Spain to this day, although it is now seen as a bit archaic. The elements of the work continue to be the same: spoken numbers, sung numbers, chorus numbers, spiced with humorous scenes that are usually duets. Costume dramas and regionalistic dramas abound, and in the librettos are all manner of idioms, regionalisms and popular jargon.

After the Glorious Revolution of 1868, the country entered a deep crisis (especially an economic crisis), which was reflected in theater. The public could not afford high-priced theater tickets, which led to the rise of the Teatros Variedades ("variety theaters") in Madrid, which reduced the price of an entrance ticket and, along with it, the length of the performance. Prior to that time a theater show was four hours long: this was reduced to just one hour. The result came to be known as "hourly theater". This innovation had great success and zarzuela composers adapted to the new formula by creating much shorter plays. Single act zarzuelas were classified as género chico (the "little genre" or "little form") and zarzuelas of three or more acts were género grande (the "big genre" or "big form"). Zarzuela grande battled on at the Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid, but with little success and light attendance. In spite of this, in 1873 a new theater, the Apolo, was opened for zarzuela grande, which shared the failures of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, until it was forced to change its program to género chico.

Baroque zarzuela

In 1657 at the Royal Palace of El Prado, King Philip IV of Spain, Queen Mariana and their court attended the first performance of a new comedy by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, with music by Juan de Hidalgo. El Laurel de Apolo traditionally symbolises the birth of a new musical genre which had become known as La Zarzuela — after one of the King's hunting lodges, situated in a remote countryside thick with zarzas or brambles. The Baroque zarzuela, a mixture of spoken (often verse) dialogue, operatic-style arias, popular songs and dances, often on mythological themes, enjoyed almost one hundred years of popularity before being edged out by the fashion for Italian Opera.

Italian influence

The 18th century saw the House of Bourbon ruling in Spain, and, with them, the reign of the Italian style in the arts; the zarzuelas of the 18th century grew to resemble Italian opera. But as Carlos III began his reign, the political and artistic climate rebelled against the Italian influence that had dominated it. With this rise of nationalism in Spain, the zarzuela was resurrected as a form able to free Spanish music from the Italian yoke.

The first apogee of the zarzuela occurred in the 1850's and 1860's, with the works of Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, Emilio Arrieta and Joaquín Gaztambide. The zarzuelas of the day included in their librettos various regionalisms and popular slang, such as that of Madrid castizos. Often, the success of a work was down to one or more songs that the public came to know and love. Despite some modifications the basic structure of the zarzuela remained the same: dialogue scenes, songs, choruses, and then in addition comic scenes generally performed by two actor-singers. The culminating masterpieces from this period were Barbieri's Pan y toros and Gaztambide's El juramento.

Romantic zarzuela

Romantic zarzuela (1850-1950) can be subdivided into the género grande, representing longer, operatic-style works in two or three acts, and the género chico encompassing shorter, more populist works in one act, approximately an hour in length. Romantic zarzuela is a combination of sung musical numbers, instrumental interludes and dialogue. Musical content ranges from full-scale operatic arias (romanzas) through to popular songs, and dialogue from high poetic drama to lowlife comedy characters. There are also many types of zarzuela in between the two, with a variety of musical and dramatic flavours.

After the 1868 Revolution, the effects of the resulting economic crisis spread to the theatre. Such grandiose productions became too expensive for the audience to afford admission, leading the Teatro Variedades of Madrid to reduce both the ticket price and the duration of the shows. One work previously extending to four hours was reduced to one hour; the style became known as the "theatre of an hour". This innovation proved to be a great success, and composers rose to the challenge of the new shorter form. The new one-act zarzuelas were termed género chico, with those of three acts or more dubbed género grande. The zarzuela grande continued to flourish in Madrid'd Teatro de la Zarzuela, but with diminished popular interest. In spite of this, in 1873 the Teatro Apolo opened and attempted to revive the longer form, until it too bowed to audience demands and became the leading venue for the género chico. Whilst Barbieri produced the greatest zarzuela grande in El barberillo de Lavapiés, the classic exponent of the género chico was his pupil Federico Chueca, whose La gran vía (produced with Joaquín Valverde) was a cult success both in Spain and throughout Europe.

The musical heir of Chueca was José Serrano, whose short, one act género chico zarzuelas - notably La canción del olvido, Alma de dios and the much later Los claveles and La dolorosa - form a stylistic bridge to the more musically sophisticated zarzuelas of the 20th Century.

The zarzuela in Catalonia

While the zarzuela tradition flourished in Madrid and other Spanish cities, Catalonia developed its own zarzuela, with librettos in Catalan. The atmosphere, the plots, and the music were quite different from the model that triumphed in Madrid; the Catalan zarzuela was looking to attract a different public, the bourgeois classes. Catalan zarzuela was turned little by little into what is called, in Catalan, teatre líric català ("Catalan lyric theater"), with a personality of its own, and with modernista lyricists and composers.

In the final years of the 19th century, as modernisme emerged, one of the notable modernistas, and one of Pedrell's pupils, Amadeu Vives came onto the Barcelona scene. He contributed to the creation of the Orfeó Català in 1891, along with Lluís Millet. In spite of a success sustained over many years, his musical ambition took him to Madrid, where zarzuela had a higher profile. Vives became one of the most important zarzuela composers, with such masterpieces as Doňa Francisquita, La villana (both based on plays by Lope de Vega) and the through-written opera in zarzuela style Maruxa.

The twentieth century

In the first years of the 20th century greater quality pieces are composed (such as Doña Francisquita by Amadeu Vives). Zarzuela was supported with these works that, sometimes, were adapted to the Italian opera musical structure, thanks to the works of Pablo Sorozábal, Federico Moreno Torroba and Jacinto Guerrero. The zarzuela style continued to flourish, thanks to composers of the stature of Pablo Sorozábal - who reinvigorated it as a vehicle for socio-political comment - Federico Moreno Torroba, and Francisco Alonso.

However, the Spanish Civil War brought a decline of the genre, and after the war, its extinction was almost total. There were no new authors in the genre 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. Furthermore, existing zarzuela is difficult and expensive to play, and is only seen sporadically, by seasons, during a few days.

The name of género ínfimo was given to the emerging form of entertainment known as revistas, a genre rising from the ashes of zarzuela: musical works similar to the zarzuela but lighter and bolder, with many scenes that were described at the time as verdes—"green"—containing sexual themes and racy double entendres. One masterpiece of the género ínfimo ("infamous genre") is La corte de Faraón, by Vicente Lleó (based on the French operetta Madame Putiphar.) These revistas caught on with the public and the songs are still a part of popular culture.

From 1950, zarzuela was revivified thanks to the LP recording. A series was released by the Alhambra Company to great success, many directed by the Spanish conductor Ataulfo Argenta. The best voices of the day, world-renowned opera singers such as Teresa Berganza, Manel Ausensi, and Pilar Lorengar, performed the leads, and choirs such as the Orfeón Donostiarra and Coro de Cantores de Madrid provided the chorus. After Argenta's death others such as Indalecio Cisneros and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos continued in his footsteps. There were also recordings made conducted by the composers themselves, such as Pablo Sorozábal and Federico Moreno Torroba, using such great singers as Alfredo Kraus and Plácido Domingo. (Domingo's parents were themselves zarzuela singers, and he grew up working in their touring company in Mexico; zarzuela inspired him to pursue a singing career.)

In Cuba the afrocubanismo zarzuelas of Ernesto Lecuona such as María la O and El cafetal and Gonzalo Roig (Cecilia Valdés, based on Cirilo Villaverde's classic novel) enjoyed a brief golden age of political and cultural fame, highlighting the plight of the mulata woman and other, mainly black underclasses in Cuban society. Mexico and the Philippines likewise had their own, politically conscious, zarzuela traditions.

Interest has been further renewed since the late 1970s as zarzuela again found favour in Spain, primarily with young people, who enjoyed the lyrical music and the theatrical spectacle. Since the death of Francisco Franco, zarzuela has started to become known and loved by many people outside the Hispanic world.

Discography of zarzuela

From 1950 onwards, zarzuela was able to survive thanks to album recordings, an area which has only grown in subsequent years. The first series met with great success, and the majority of these earliest productions were directed by the Spaniard Ataulfo Argenta. Some of the most popular voices of the time appeared on these discs, world-recognized singers who were professional devotees of opera and recitals. Teresa Berganza, Ana María Iriarte, Carlos Munguía, and others 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 the death of Ataulfo Argenta, directors like Indalecio Cisneros, García Asensio, and others picked up the cause. There were even recordings which were directed by the works' original composers, as was the case with Pablo Sorozábal and Federico Moreno Torroba. In this phase, acclaimed voices participated in the newer, bigger recordings: Montserrat Caballé, Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, and many more.

Renewed interest in the genre

The latter 1970s witnessed a revived interest in zarzuela, especially its music. All of Europe was experiencing an increasing interest in lyrical opera, especially among younger viewers, and Spanish reverberations of this sentiment produced a renewed interest in zarzuela. Music stores began offering albums whose discs were accompanied by a small pamphlet containing the synopsis of the work and information about the author. Radio and television dedicated program slots to zarzuela, including a popular series of programs offered by TVE entitled Antología de la zarzuela ("Zarzuela Anthology").

Zarzuela composers

Partial list of Zarzuelas

Other uses

Zarzuela is also the name of a Spanish dish made of diverse sorts of seafood and fish, named after the opera genre, due to the mixture of characters.

References

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