Essay On Zarzuela

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Recommended: Baroque era and modern era

Throughout the ages, there have been different forms of performances entertaining the world, each filling its own little definition. One of these is the zarzuela, a Spanish lyric theater drama, featuring a mix of spoken and sung scenes, popular, operatic and orchestral numbers, as well as dance. It was considered an innovative style of drama, giving function to the musical numbers within the story to advance the plot. Within zarzuela there are two main genres, Baroque and Romantic, which are then split into other sub-genres, mainly género grande and género chico (usually shorter and lighter). Zarzuela’s origin is not unclear, and allegedly originated near Madrid at the Palacio de la Zarzuela (zarzuela meaning zarzas, brambles, which supposedly grew all around the lodge.) Baroque zarzuela was popular from 1630-1750, with themes largely revolving around traditional mythological or historical stories and characters. Early zarzuelas can be very closely compared to the Italian opera seria. The Baroque time of zarzuela was the Golden Age of the genre and its most important period of development. The first known performance was in 1657, and was a comedy by the name of El Laurel de Apolo, written by Pedro Calderón. It was performed in the Palace of Zarzuela Complex, and is recognized as the birth of La Zarzuela. Baroque zarzuela’s popularity began to wane after roughly a hundred years due to Italian influence, until, with an influence of nationalist rebellion, Carlos II resurrected zarzuela in 1759. His reign opened the floor for artists to rebel against these traditional Italian influences and brought back zarzuela. In the 1850s, Romantic zarzuela began to appear, and was mostly the same as traditional zarzuelas, with com...

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... One of the most striking differences is in the content of the stories portrayed. In most zarzuelas, there is very little tragedy, and the drama is not as
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over the top. Most zarzuelas include a good amount of comedy, many times with comedic love affairs, and happy endings are a standard that is kept. Although, Calderón, the writer of the first Zarzuela, defined the show this way: “It’s not a comedy, just a little fable at the manner of Italy, where there is singing and acting.” Zarzuela’s differences from opera are no mistake, opera was already around for half a century when zarzuela emerged, and it was still expanding. But many Spanish people didn’t care for recitative. It was considered something affected, unnatural: “if you speak, you speak, but if you sing, you sing.” This can be considered a main clash found between opera and zarzuela, Italy and Spain.

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