96-457: Isaac Bickerstaffe or Bickerstaff (26 September 1733 – after 1808) was an Irish playwright and librettist . Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin , on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government position overseeing the construction and management of sports fields including bowls and tennis courts. The office was abolished in 1745, and he received a pension from
192-618: A dynastic marriage alliance with the Spanish Habsburgs . As he continued writing verse dramas , Calderón's favorite theatrical genres included mystery plays illustrating the doctrines of Transubstantiation and the Real Presence for performance during the Feast of Corpus Christi and both comedy of intrigue and tragic theatre rooted in many of the same plot devices as Shakespeare's plays and in ethical dilemmas under
288-967: A light opera Thomas and Sally which was an enormous success. It is possible that Bickerstaff simply wrote the play and approached Arne with it or sent it to the Covent Garden Theatre where he was working. It had its opening night at Covent Garden on 28 November 1760. The play was performed repeatedly in London and soon spread around Britain and across the British Empire . It was also performed in Dublin , Philadelphia and Kingston, Jamaica . They subsequently worked together on Judith , an oratorio first performed at Drury Lane in February 1760. He went on to produce many successful comedies based on Marivaux and other French playwrights and opera librettos. In 1762 he and Arne wrote Love in
384-481: A metaphor for a fall into disgrace or dishonour. Some of the most common themes of his plays were heavily influenced by his Classical Christian education by the Jesuits . For example, as a reader and great admirer of Scholastic theologians Saint Thomas Aquinas and Francisco Suárez , Calderón liked to confront reason against emotion, intellect against instinct, love against vengeance, and understanding against
480-496: A Dream ), in which Segismundo claims: ¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí. ¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión, una sombra, una ficción, y el mayor bien es pequeño. ¡Que toda la vida es sueño, y los sueños, sueños son! What is life? A frenzy. What is life? An illusion, A shadow, a fiction, And the greatest good is small; For all of life is a dream, And dreams, are only dreams. According to Richard E. Chandler and Kessel Schwartz, "Calderón's 'cape and sword' plays represent
576-560: A Village , considered the first English comic opera . His The Maide of the Mill (1765), with music by Samuel Arnold and others, was also very successful. Bickerstaffe also wrote bowdlerised versions of plays by William Wycherley and Pedro Calderon de la Barca . His Love in the City (1767), The Padlock (1768), based on "The Jealous Husband" in Cervantes' Novelas (this included
672-572: A detestable crime, died miserably a few days ago in Sussex". However this again appears to have been a false report, as records indicate he was still receiving his army half pay in 1808. "It seems he may have died soon after this." Long after Bickerstaffe's disappearance, his colleague Charles Dibdin was frequently accused of plagiarising his songs. Librettist A libretto (From the Italian word libretto , lit. ' booklet ' )
768-911: A disguised woman reminiscent of Viola from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night , surrealist concepts, romantic complications, and the threat of a dynastic civil war, while exploring the philosophical question of whether each individual's fate has already been written without their involvement or if the future can be altered by free will . Calderón's poetry and plays have since wielded an enormous global influence upon Romanticism , symbolism , literary modernism , expressionism , dystopian science fiction , and even postmodernism . His many admirers have included August Wilhelm Schlegel , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , John Dryden , Lord Byron , Percy Bysshe Shelley , Fr. Félix Sardà y Salvany , Hugo von Hoffmannsthal , Vyacheslav Ivanov , Jorge Luis Borges , Konstantin Stanislavsky , and Boris Pasternak . In 1881,
864-404: A given set of theological and philosophical constructs. Calderón wrote 120 "comedias", 80 "autos sacramentales" and 20 short comedic works called entremeses . As Goethe notes, Calderón tended to take special care with the dramatic structures of his plays. He usually included fewer scenes than other contemporary playwrights (such as Lope de Vega ) so as to avoid any superfluous distractions from
960-443: A highly successful play by its librettist, Gabriele D'Annunzio , a celebrated Italian poet, novelist and dramatist of the day. In some cases, the operatic adaptation has become more famous than the literary text on which it was based, as with Claude Debussy 's Pelléas et Mélisande after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck . The question of which is more important in opera – the music or the words – has been debated over time, and forms
1056-411: A lasting collaboration), Auber , Bellini , Donizetti , Rossini and Verdi . The French writers' duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote many opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach , Jules Massenet and Georges Bizet . Arrigo Boito , who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli , also composed two operas of his own. The libretto
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#17327973987491152-467: A look at drama, which in modern history has replaced the spectacles of universal and holy events as reflected in miniature and purely signifying forms on the stages of the mystery plays . We know that classical French tragedy is one of triumphs of the transformational , decisive idealistic principle. Calderón, however, is different. In him, everything is but a signification of the objective truth of Divine Providence, which governs human destiny. A pious son of
1248-408: A personage who methodically and in cold blood slays the one by whom his honour has been affronted . For us such an action is a perversion of the ideals of chivalry ." In contrast, Alexander A. Parker has argued, in an article of his own for Encyclopedia Britannica , that Calderón was actually a very harsh moral critic of Spanish culture at the time in which he lived, "Accepting the conventions of
1344-513: A series of spectacular plays for the royal theatre in the newly built Buen Retiro palace. On 28 May 1640 he joined a company of mounted cuirassiers recently raised by Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares , took part in the Catalan campaign, and distinguished himself by his gallantry at Tarragona . His health failing, Calderón retired from the army in November 1642, and three years later
1440-548: A stage play by Calderón, La banda y la flor ( The Scarf and the Flower ), as translated by Schlegel. In subsequent decades, Calderón was repeatedly translated into German, most notably by Johann Diederich Gries and Joseph von Eichendorff , and had an enthusiastic reception on the German and Austrian stages, particularly under the direction of Goethe , and Joseph Schreyvogel . Later significant German-language adaptations include
1536-445: A subject and developing a sketch of the action in the form of a scenario , as well as revisions that might come about when the work is in production, as with out-of-town tryouts for Broadway musicals, or changes made for a specific local audience. A famous case of the latter is Wagner's 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris. The opera libretto from its inception ( c. 1600 )
1632-543: A tertiary of the order of St Francis in 1650, and then finally joined the priesthood. He was ordained in 1651 and served as a parish priest at San Salvador Church in Madrid , which was later demolished as part of the 19th-century Spanish confiscations . According to a statement Calderón made a year or two later, he decided to give up writing secular drama for the commercial theatres. Though he did not adhere strictly to this resolution, he now wrote mostly mythological plays for
1728-523: A toast to the religious values of Calderón's Spain and the supremacy of the Latino race over "Germanic barbarity ", by which Menéndez Pelayo meant anti-Catholic Spanish Krausist and the Hegelianist intellectuals. Félix Sardà y Salvany , the author of the book Liberalism Is a Sin , and his fellow integrists and Carlists considered Calderón de la Barca to embody the most brilliant incarnation of
1824-523: A writer of Autos Sacramentales , Calderón is supreme. The Auto , cultivated since the time of Gil Vicente , is a one act play , generally allegorical in nature, which at one time or another treats the miracle of Transubstantiation . Autos were performed in Spain's large cities during the Corpus Christi festival in the open air on temporary stages set up in some public square. Everyone, including
1920-488: Is even more limited still; he is not only Spanish rather than universal, but, as a Spaniard, he typifies the sentiments and ideals of a narrowly restricted period, the seventeenth century. It may be added that in his theatre and in his daily life he was a model of the truly Christian and knightly poet of his period. The ideas most distinctive of his age which we see reflected in Calderón's dramatic works are intense devotion to
2016-602: Is greatly different from the Edna Ferber novel from which it was adapted , uses some of Ferber's original dialogue, notably during the miscegenation scene. And Lionel Bart 's Oliver! uses chunks of dialogue from Charles Dickens 's novel Oliver Twist , although it bills itself as a "free adaptation" of the novel. As the originating language of opera, Italian dominated that genre in Europe (except in France) well through
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#17327973987492112-419: Is not always written before the music. Some composers, such as Mikhail Glinka , Alexander Serov , Rimsky-Korsakov , Puccini and Mascagni wrote passages of music without text and subsequently had the librettist add words to the vocal melody lines (this has often been the case with American popular song and musicals in the 20th century, as with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart 's collaboration, although with
2208-417: Is shown to create social disorder by breeding enmity and endangering love and friendship. No siempre lo peor es cierto (c. 1640; 'The Worst Is Not Always True') and No hay cosa como callar (1639; 'Silence Is Golden') mark the peak of this development; although the conventions of comedy remain, the overtones are tragic. Both plays also implicitly criticize the accepted code of honour . Calderón’s rejection of
2304-408: Is the diminutive of the word libro ("book"). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works, Textbuch for German and libreto for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use
2400-418: Is the most extreme of his honor tragedies. It revolves around a point of honor and recounts how a husband, suspecting his wife of infidelity, causes her veins to be opened. She bleeds to death, washing his dishonor away with her blood." While acknowledging that the plot of the same play has caused Calderón's humanity to be questioned, Alexander A. Parker has written, "The critics who allege that he approves of
2496-487: Is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera , operetta , masque , oratorio , cantata or musical . The term libretto is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass , requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet . The Italian word libretto ( pronounced [liˈbretto] , plural libretti [liˈbretti] )
2592-674: The Black Legend still means that even the existence of the Spanish Golden Age , let alone its literary, artistic, and cultural achievements, remain widely unknown in the English-speaking world . Both this ignorance and its cultural fallout were criticized even during the Black Legend's Elizabethan era inception by Sir Philip Sidney , whose 1580 essay An Apology for Poetry expressed very high praise for
2688-558: The Royal Spanish Academy awarded a gold medal to Irish poet Denis Florence MacCarthy for his highly praised and accurate literary translations of Calderón's verse dramas into English. In 2021, a renewed search for Calderón's missing remains gained media attention worldwide. Pedro Calderón de la Barca was born in Madrid on Friday 17 January 1600, and was baptized in the parish of San Martín. His father, Diego Calderón,
2784-700: The Spanish Church , he was able to combine all the daring of naive individualism with the most profound realism of the mystical contemplation of divine things." Calderón's fame dwindled during the 18th-century due to the anti-religious currents of both the Bourbon Reforms and the Enlightenment in Spain and, in 1765, a law was passed forbidding the performance of Autos on the Feast of Corpus Christi , officially for being, "sacrilegious and in bad taste." Within mere decades, though, Calderón
2880-453: The Spanish nobility 's code of honour . Born while the unwritten rules of Spanish Golden Age theatre were still being defined by Lope de Vega , Calderón pushed their limits even further by introducing radical and pioneering innovations that are now termed metafiction and surrealism . His masterpiece, La Vida es Sueño (" Life is a Dream "), combines a beauty and the beast plotline,
2976-422: The aria " Nessun dorma " from Puccini's Turandot , the final lines in the libretto are "Tramontate, stelle! All'alba, vincerò!" (Fade, you stars! At dawn, I will win!). However, in the score they are sung as "Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All'alba, vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!". Because the modern musical tends to be published in two separate but intersecting formats (i.e., the book and lyrics, with all
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3072-526: The clichés they are expected to slavishly follow. Most famously in his masterpiece, La Vida es Sueño , Calderón uses an astrological prophecy made decades before the beginning of the play as a way to deliberately mislead the audience about how the plot will unfold. Calderón intended to subtly defend the Catholic doctrine of free will against the Calvinist doctrine of predestination and to depict
3168-512: The comedy of intrigue , a favourite form on the Spanish stage, he used them for a fundamentally serious purpose. La dama duende (1629; 'The Phantom Lady') is a neat and lively example. In Casa con dos puertas, mala es de guardar (1629; 'A House with Two Doors Is Difficult to Guard'), the intrigues of secret courtship and the disguises that it necessitates are so presented that the traditional seclusion of women on which these intrigues are based
3264-415: The public domain ) this format is supplemented with melodic excerpts of musical notation for important numbers. Printed scores for operas naturally contain the entire libretto, although there can exist significant differences between the score and the separately printed text. More often than not, this involves the extra repetition of words or phrases from the libretto in the actual score. For example, in
3360-619: The 18th century, and even into the next century in Russia, for example, when the Italian opera troupe in Saint Petersburg was challenged by the emerging native Russian repertory. Significant exceptions before 1800 can be found in Purcell 's works, Handel 's first operas, ballad opera and Singspiel of the 18th century, etc. Just as with literature and song, the libretto has its share of problems and challenges with translation . In
3456-677: The Catholic Faith; absolute and unquestioning loyalty to the Spanish sovereign; and a highly developed, even much exaggerated, feeling of honour ." According to Richard E. Chandler and Kessel Schwartz, it is vital to realize, that despite the end of the Reconquista in 1492 many elements of Islamic Spain rooted in Sharia Law still persisted among the Christian population during the lifetime of Calderón; "One must understand
3552-595: The De Mons of Hainault. His parents married in 1595. Pedro was the third of the six children that the marriage produced (three boys and three girls), of whom only four survived childhood: Diego, the first-born; Dorotea — nun in Toledo—; Pedro and Jusepe or José. These brothers were always welcome, as Diego Calderón stated in his will (1647): All three of us have always conserved ourselves in love and friendship, and without dividing up assets... we have helped each other in
3648-781: The Holy Cross during the weekly literary salon held inside Ivanov's flat overlooking the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg . Many of the most important figures in Russian literature at the time were either present or acting in the play. Although he is best known abroad as the Nobel Prize -winning author of Doctor Zhivago , Soviet dissident intellectual and former Ivanov protege Boris Pasternak produced acclaimed Russian translations of Calderón's plays during
3744-465: The Lilacs , Carousel used dialogue from Ferenc Molnár 's Liliom , My Fair Lady took most of its dialogue word-for-word from George Bernard Shaw 's Pygmalion , Man of La Mancha was adapted from the 1959 television play I, Don Quixote , which supplied most of the dialogue, and the 1954 musical version of Peter Pan used J. M. Barrie 's dialogue. Even the musical Show Boat , which
3840-484: The Roof has a composer ( Jerry Bock ), a lyricist ( Sheldon Harnick ) and the writer of the "book" ( Joseph Stein ). In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements – music, lyrics and libretto, as Lionel Bart did for Oliver! . Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. There are the preliminary steps of selecting or suggesting
3936-486: The Spaniard's sense of personal dignity and his desire to protect his reputation, it became a matter of pride and self-respect to cleanse tarnished honor, which even gossip could blemish. All male members of the household were responsible for protecting the family's name, and no honorable gentleman could leave family honor unavenged. In relationships between the sexes, the code of honor became especially sinister and led to
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4032-525: The Spanish Catholic literary tradition. During the pre-1917 Silver Age of Russian Poetry , highly influential Russian Symbolist poet and dramatic theorist Vyacheslav Ivanov , who was heavily influenced by German Romanticism, was accordingly an enthusiast for Calderón. On 19 April 1910, Vsevolod Meyerhold even staged Konstantin Balmont 's literary translation of Calderón's Adoration of
4128-496: The State , the expulsion of the religious orders , the ban on Classical Christian education , and the many other anti-Catholic policies of Liberal Spanish monarchs and their ministers . In 1881, during a controversial gathering at El Retiro , an urban park on the site of the demolished Royal palace where many of his plays were first performed, on the two hundredth anniversary of Calderón's death, Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo raised
4224-478: The arts. He developed a view that the English language was totally unsuited for singing operas in, however skilled the composer, and that Italian was the natural language. Later in life, he was to challenge this view. In London he initially struggled, and his first work Leucothoé (1756), a dramatic poem, was a failure. While critically well received by two reviewers, it had not been set to music and performed and
4320-472: The basis of at least two operas, Richard Strauss 's Capriccio and Antonio Salieri 's Prima la musica e poi le parole . Libretti have been made available in several formats, some more nearly complete than others. The text – i.e., the spoken dialogue, song lyrics and stage directions, as applicable – is commonly published separately from the music (such a booklet is usually included with sound recordings of most operas). Sometimes (particularly for operas in
4416-476: The character Mungo, a negro servant played by Dibdin, one of the earliest comic black roles in English drama). He also wrote The Life of Ambrose Guinet (1770). In 1770, a newspaper published a false report that in a fit of despair, he had thrown himself into the sea in the south of France, and perished. In 1772, Bickerstaffe fled to the Continent, suspected of homosexuality. The actor-producer David Garrick
4512-575: The commercial theatres. Calderón served in the Spanish Royal Army in Italy and Flanders between 1625 and 1635. By the time Lope de Vega died in 1635, Calderón was recognized as the foremost Spanish dramatist of the age. Calderón had also gained considerable favour in the court, and in 1636–1637 he was made a knight of the Order of Santiago by Philip IV, who had already commissioned from him
4608-476: The composer (past or present) of the musical score to an opera or operetta is usually given top billing for the completed work, and the writer of the lyrics relegated to second place or a mere footnote, a notable exception being Gertrude Stein , who received top billing for Four Saints in Three Acts . Another exception was Alberto Franchetti 's 1906 opera La figlia di Iorio which was a close rendering of
4704-549: The composer. In some 17th-century operas still being performed, the name of the librettist was not even recorded. As the printing of libretti for sale at performances became more common, these records often survive better than music left in manuscript. But even in late 18th century London, reviews rarely mentioned the name of the librettist, as Lorenzo Da Ponte lamented in his memoirs. By the 20th century some librettists became recognised as part of famous collaborations, as with Gilbert and Sullivan or Rodgers and Hammerstein . Today
4800-409: The context of a modern English-language musical theatre piece, the libretto is considered to encompass both the book of the work (i.e., the spoken dialogue) and the sung lyrics. Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries were generally written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Pietro Trapassi , known as Metastasio (1698–1782) was one of
4896-555: The court of the King of Spain, he had access to the most modern techniques regarding scenography. He collaborated with Cosme Lotti in developing complex scenographies that were integrated in some of his plays, specially his most religious-themed ones such as the Autos Sacramentales , becoming extremely complex allegories of moral, philosophical and religious concepts. According to Richard E. Chandler and Kessel Schwartz, "As
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#17327973987494992-600: The diary of Stuart Restoration courtier Samuel Pepys describes attending stage plays in London during 1667 which were free translations from Calderón. During the same era, Calderón's many emulators in writing for the English stage included Poet Laureate of England John Dryden . Centuries later, like his German Romantic colleagues, English Romantic poet Lord Byron repeatedly referenced Calderón, whom he viewed as "a romantic figure". Byron's friend and fellow Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley similarly had very high praise in his essays for Calderón and personally translated
5088-410: The essential focus of the plays. He also worked towards a greater stylistic uniformity by reducing the number of different metres in his plays. Calderón realized that any play was a work of fiction, and that the structure of the baroque play was entirely artificial. He therefore, probably influenced by Cervantes , made regular use of metafictional techniques, such as making his characters joke about
5184-600: The government for the rest of his life. In his early years, Isaac was a page to Lord Chesterfield , the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , which allowed him to mix with fashionable Dublin society. When Chesterfield was replaced in the position in 1745 he arranged for Isaac to be given a commission in the army. In October 1745, Bickerstaff joined the 5th Regiment of Foot known as the Northumberland Fusiliers. He served as an Ensign until 1746, when he
5280-621: The late 1950s. According to his mistress , Olga Ivinskaya , In working on Calderón he received help from Nikolai Mikhailovich Liubumov, a shrewd and enlightened person who understood very well that all the mudslinging and commotion over the novel would be forgotten, but that there would always be a Pasternak. I took finished bits of the translation with me to Moscow, read them to Liubimov at Potapov Street, and then went back to Peredelkino, where I would tactfully ask [Boris Leonidovich] to change passages which, in Liubimov's view departed too far from
5376-521: The later team of Rodgers and Hammerstein the lyrics were generally written first, which was Rodgers' preferred modus operandi). Some composers wrote their own libretti. Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz , too, wrote the libretti for two of his best-known works, La damnation de Faust and Les Troyens . Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchner 's play Woyzeck for
5472-424: The libretto of Wozzeck . Sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer; this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Vladimir Belsky , or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics and the "book" (i.e., the spoken dialogue and the stage directions) may each have its own author. Thus, a musical such as Fiddler on
5568-402: The lyrics of the arias , duets , trios and choruses written in verse. The libretto of a musical, on the other hand, is almost always written in prose (except for the song lyrics). The libretto of a musical, if the musical is adapted from a play (or even a novel), may even borrow their source's original dialogue liberally – much as Oklahoma! used dialogue from Lynn Riggs 's Green Grow
5664-539: The most barbarous cruelties. A husband was permitted to kill his wife if she was even suspected of infidelity, and her lover had to be murdered to avoid a scandal. Love was the great game, and the responsibilities of a household of an attractive woman was a terrible burden and source of worry for the husband or father. One bloody vengeance called for another, and bloody feuds raged through entire families. The ladies, especially those of Calderón and Tirso , were highly susceptible to risqué situations and quite unafraid to run
5760-413: The most highly regarded librettists in Europe. His libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte . He wrote the libretti for three of Mozart 's greatest operas, and for many other composers as well. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer (with whom he had
5856-495: The most profoundly Spanish poet of his epoch, speaks so intimately to the passions and ideals of the time that he often lacks the little universality which his contemporaries achieved... Although he lacked the spontaneity and variety of the Phoenix , he frequently equaled him and at times surpassed him in sheer beauty of poetry with rapturous heights which even Lope could not equal. He was more profound and philosophical than Lope. He
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#17327973987495952-482: The motivation of the Carnival of 1680 he wrote his last work of comedy, Hado y divisa de Leonido y de Marfisa . He died on 25 May 1681, leaving only partially complete the autos sacramentales that he had been working on for that year. His burial was austere and unembellished, as he desired in his will: "Uncovered, as if I deserved to satisfy in part the public vanities of my poorly spent life". In this manner he left
6048-528: The murder of an innocent wife because honour demands it overlook the fact that the horror one feels at this deed is precisely what he intended." In common with many writers from the Spanish Golden Age , his plays usually show his vital pessimism, that is only softened by his rationalism and his faith in the Christian God ; the anguish and distress usually found his œuvre is better exemplified in one of his most famous plays, La vida es sueño ( Life Is
6144-421: The needs and jobs we have had. However, they also had a natural brother, Francisco, who hid under the surname of "González" and was expelled from the father's house by Don Diego, although he left written in 1615 that he be recognized as legitimate unless he had married "with that woman he tried to marry", in which case he would be disinherited. His mother died when Calderón was ten years old, in 1610. Calderón
6240-442: The old Betty Grable – Don Ameche – Carmen Miranda vehicles, are largely unaffected, but this practice is especially misleading in translations of musicals like Show Boat , The Wizard of Oz , My Fair Lady or Carousel , in which the lyrics to the songs and the spoken text are often or always closely integrated, and the lyrics serve to further the plot. Availability of printed or projected translations today makes singing in
6336-477: The original language more practical, although one cannot discount the desire to hear a sung drama in one's own language. The Spanish words libretista (playwright, script writer or screenwriter) and libreto (script or screen play), which are used in the Hispanic TV and cinema industry, derived their meanings from the original operatic sense. Librettists have historically received less prominent credit than
6432-586: The original. Very soon after the "scandal" was over, [Boris Leonidovich] received a first payment for the work on Calderón. Following the end of the Spanish Civil War , Calderón was embraced as a national poet by the Francoist government. This, however, has not harmed his popularity in Spain in the years since the transition back to constitutional monarchy . The persistent influence of both anti-Catholicism and anti-Spanish sentiment rooted in
6528-568: The palace theatres, and autos sacramentales —one-act allegories illustrating the Real Presence in the Eucharist —for performance during the feast of Corpus Christi . In 1662, two of Calderón's autos , Las órdenes militares and Mística y real Babilonia , were the subjects of an investigation by the Spanish Inquisition ; the former was censored, its manuscripts confiscated, and it remained banned until 1671. Even so, Calderón
6624-629: The past (and even today), foreign musical stage works with spoken dialogue, especially comedies, were sometimes performed with the sung portions in the original language and the spoken dialogue in the vernacular. The effects of leaving lyrics untranslated depend on the piece. A man like Louis Durdilly would translate the whole libretto, dialogues and airs, into French: Così fan tutte became Ainsi font toutes, ou la Fidélité des femmes , and instead of Ferrando singing "Un' aura amorosa" French-speaking audiences were treated to Fernand singing "Ma belle est fidèle autant qu'elle est belle". Many musicals, such as
6720-428: The perfection of a type introduced by Lope. They illustrate the type carried to the extreme of its possibilities, with unbelievably complicated plots worked out with mathematical precision. Lovers' intrigues, honor complications, sudden appearances, and many other tricks and devices are resorted to by the playwright to complicate and then to disentangle the story. In these plays, as well as in the honor tragedies, Calderón,
6816-550: The point of honor ( pundonor ) and resulting social complications to understand the theatre of Calderón, or, in fact, any of the Golden Age dramatists. A man's honor was a touchy point, based primarily upon a highly refined sentiment of conjugal fidelity but extended to include a man's daughters, married or unmarried, or any other woman in his household. Also, honor had to be kept inviolate -- an extremely difficult thing to accomplish -- and if sullied, had to be avenged. Arising from
6912-549: The rigid assumptions of the code of honour is evident also in his tragedies. In the famous El alcalde de Zalamea , the secrecy and the vengeance demanded by the code are rejected. This play also presents a powerful contrast between the aristocracy and the people : the degeneration of the aristocratic ideal is exposed, wealth is associated with manual labour, and honour is shown to be the consequence and prerogative of moral integrity regardless of class." According to Richard E. Chandler and Kessel Schwartz, " El médico de su honra
7008-655: The risk of a compromising and dishonoring one. Calderón was a court poet and was consequently versed in all the intricacies of the honor code." Jeremiah Ford continued, "The point of honour, often carried to morbid extremes, provides the motif in such characteristic pieces as the Alcade de Zalamea , the Pintor de su deshonra , the Médico de su honra , and A secreto agravio secreta venganza . The actuating principle in these works can hardly appeal to us; we can feel little sympathy with
7104-601: The royalty, attended the public performances, which followed the Processional of the Host through the streets to the church. Some believe that these short pieces represent the best of the Calderonian theatre where his fertile imagination had free rein and his sincere religious motives and faith found their purest expression." According to Russian Symbolist poet and dramatic theorist Vyacheslav Ivanov , "Let us take
7200-541: The theatres orphaned in which he was considered one of the best dramatic writers of his time. Calderón initiated what has been called the second cycle of Spanish Golden Age theatre. Whereas his predecessor, Lope de Vega , pioneered the dramatic forms and genres of Spanish Golden Age theatre, Calderón polished and perfected them. Whereas Lope's strength lay in the spontaneity and naturalness of his work, Calderón's strength lay in his capacity for poetic beauty, dramatic structure and philosophical and theological depth. Calderón
7296-401: The unwritten nature of each individual's future based on their choices. Although his poetry and plays leaned towards culteranismo , Calderón usually reduced the level and obscurity of that style by avoiding metaphors and references that uneducated viewers would not understand. However, he had a great influence anyway in later centuries upon Symbolism , for example by making a fall from a horse
7392-701: The verse dramas he had attended during diplomatic missions in France, Spain, and Italy. Playwrights in Catholic Europe during the Counter-Reformation had revived Aristotle 's three Classical unities and Sidney for these and many other reasons considered them vastly superior to all the plays then being written and performed in England. Despite this, Calderón's plays were first translated and performed in English during his lifetime. For instance,
7488-427: The will. This is not to say, however, that Calderón has never had his critics. In an article for the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia , Harvard University Professor Jeremiah Ford wrote, "Were one to contrast Shakespeare with Lope de Vega , he would discover that, while Shakespeare belongs to all men and all time, Lope is the particular property of Spain, and is bounded by national limitations. The character of Calderón
7584-471: The word libretto to refer to the 15- to 40-page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a very detailed description of the ballet's story, scene by scene. The relationship of the librettist (that is, the writer of a libretto) to the composer in the creation of a musical work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources and the writing techniques employed. In
7680-611: The words, and the piano-vocal score, with all the musical material, including some spoken cues), both are needed in order to make a thorough reading of an entire show. Pedro Calderon de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca (17 January 1600 – 25 May 1681) ( UK : / ˌ k æ l d ə ˈ r ɒ n ˌ d eɪ l æ ˈ b ɑːr k ə / , US : / ˌ k ɑː l d ə ˈ r oʊ n ˌ d eɪ l ə -, - ˌ d ɛ l ə -/ ; Spanish: [ˈpeðɾo kaldeˈɾon de la ˈβaɾka] ; full name: Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño )
7776-442: The work of highly influential Austrian Symbolist poet, metafictional playwright, and Richard Strauss ' favorite opera librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal ; who made literary translations of La vida es sueño and El gran teatro del mundo . During the 19th century in his homeland, Calderón de la Barca was embraced by adherents of Carlism and other opponents of the 1798-1924 mass confiscation and sale of Church property by
7872-470: Was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer. He is known as one of the most distinguished poets and writers of the Spanish Golden Age , especially for the many verse dramas he wrote for the theatre . Calderón has been termed "the Spanish Shakespeare ", the national poet of Spain, and one of the greatest poets and playwrights in the history of world literature . Calderón de la Barca
7968-834: Was a mountain hidalgo with family origins in Viveda , Cantabria and had inherited his own father's position of secretary of the Council and Chief Accounting Office of the Treasury, serving in it the Spanish Habsburg Kings Felipe II and Felipe III , died in 1615. The playwright's mother, Ana Gonzalez de Henao (or Henaut, Hainaut ), had family roots in the Spanish Netherlands and was of either Flemish or Walloon descent. According to James Fitzmaurice-Kelly , she claimed origin from
8064-458: Was a perfectionist who often revisited and reworked his plays, even long after they were first performed. His perfectionism was not just limited to his own work: several of his plays adapt and reimagine existing plays or scenes by other dramatists, improving their depth, complexity, and unity. Calderón excelled above all others in the genre of the "auto sacramental", in which he showed a seemingly inexhaustible capacity to giving new dramatic forms to
8160-453: Was an aristocratic poet and, unlike Lope, did not slavishly cater to the demands of the public. Lope was the improviser, Calderón was the planner." Indeed, his themes tended to be complex and philosophical, and express complicated states of mind in a manner that few playwrights have been able to manage. Like Baltasar Gracián , Calderón favoured only the deepest human feelings and moral dilemmas. Since Calderón's plays were usually produced at
8256-416: Was appointed honorary chaplain to Philip IV in 1663, and continued as chaplain to his successor. In his eighty-first year he wrote his last secular play, Hado y Divisa de Leonido y Marfisa , in honor of Charles II 's marriage to Maria Luisa of Orléans . Notwithstanding his position at court and his popularity throughout Spain, near the end of his life Calderón struggled with financial difficulties, but with
8352-446: Was awarded a special military pension in recognition of his services in the field. Calderón's biography during the next few years is obscure. His brother, Diego Calderón, died in 1647. A son, Pedro José, was born to Calderón and an unknown woman between 1647 and 1649; the mother died soon after. Calderón committed his son to the care of his nephew, José, son of Diego. Perhaps for reasons relating to these personal trials, Calderón became
8448-529: Was born into the minor Spanish nobility in Madrid , where he lived for most of his life. He served as soldier and a knight of the military and religious Order of Santiago , but later became a Roman Catholic priest . His theatrical debut was a history play about the life of King Edward III of England , was first performed on 29 June 1623 at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid , during the surprise visit to Spain of Charles, Prince of Wales to negotiate for
8544-657: Was implicated in the scandal by the lampoon Love in the Suds by William Kenrick . The remainder of his life seems to have been passed in penury and misery, but little is known. However, in March 1772, it was reported that he was writing a small piece, which was to be called the Coterie, and would be performed at the Haymarket theatre that summer. In early August 1772, it was reported that "Bickerstaff...who lately absconded for
8640-417: Was performed at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid during the visit of Charles, Prince of Wales to unsuccessfully negotiate for a dynastic marriage with Infanta Maria Anna of Spain , on 29 June 1623. This was followed by two other plays that same year: La selva confusa and Los Macabeos . Over the next two decades, Calderón wrote more than 70 plays, the majority of which were secular dramas written for
8736-698: Was promoted to Lieutenant. The regiment, under the command of Alexander Irwin , was on the Irish Establishment and was based in Kinsale in Ireland. In March 1755, the regiment was moved to Bristol in England. Having recently come into some money, Isaac resigned his commission in August and went on half-pay . He intended to become a writer, but his first work was published but not performed and he soon ran into financial difficulties. By March 1758, he
8832-509: Was rediscovered in the Germanosphere by highly influential Jena Romantic poet and Indologist August Wilhelm Schlegel . Schlegel's literary translations and high critical praise rekindled interest in Calderón, who, along with Shakespeare , became a banner figure, first for German Romanticism , and then for Romanticism in many other countries and languages. E. T. A. Hoffmann based his 1807 singspiel Liebe und Eifersucht on
8928-703: Was so short of money that he joined the Marine Corps as a lieutenant stationed at Plymouth and served through the Seven Years' War . In 1763, following the Treaty of Paris he was honourably discharged as the Corps was reduced in size. Bickerstaff had first arrived in London in 1755 and worked as a playwright. His years growing up in Dublin, a cultural hub at the time, had greatly influenced his views on writing and
9024-558: Was then educated at the Jesuit Collegio in Madrid , the Colegio Imperial , with a view to taking orders; but instead, he studied law at Salamanca . Between 1620 and 1622 Calderón won several poetry contests in honor of the feast day of St. Isidore , the patron saint of Madrid. Calderón's debut as a playwright was Amor, honor y poder ("Love, honor, and power"), about the life of King Edward III of England ,
9120-406: Was widely ignored. Bickerstaff also hurt his chances of success by publicly criticising David Garrick , the leading actor-manager of the era, for "barbarity" in his recent attempts to set Shakespeare plays to music. These setbacks forced him to return to military service. In 1760, while still serving in the marine corps, Bickerstaff collaborated with Thomas Arne , the leading British composer, on
9216-489: Was written in verse, and this continued well into the 19th century, although genres of musical theatre with spoken dialogue have typically alternated verse in the musical numbers with spoken prose. Since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. Much of the recitatives of George Gershwin 's opera Porgy and Bess , for instance, are merely DuBose and Dorothy Heyward 's play Porgy set to music as written – in prose – with
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