Music And the Stage in the Time of Lope de Vega
– by Grover Wilkins III (www.orchestraofnewspain.org)It is a given that the origins of Spanish theater lie in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. The texts, ubiquity of music, vestments, co-ordinated movements, the spectacular (or otherwise) spaces, all provided for an experience diverting the public from the drudgeries of everyday life. Above all, this theater was the unique means of teaching and of maintaining a kind of discipline on a public whose communal life did not often offer much hope. Music with its ability to promote different moods, played an essential role in that.
Of special interest were, of course, the feast days of the year. It was around Corpus Christi in the mid-16th century that the first ‘representations,’ that is non-liturgical acting out of the message of beliefs, are first recorded in Spain. Originally presented in a street ‘parade,’ with actors and musicians transported atop decorated floats, the autos formed the basis of a theatrical celebration. From the streets such popular events moved to plazas that over time took on the character of theaters, called corrales in Spanish, open to the sky, but enclosed by surrounded buildings, whence, in addition to the paying customers, neighbors could view the spectacle.
Just as had been the case with the liturgy, music and movement—now dance—were maintained as central to the auto sacramentales. Initially, a guitar and a couple of singers might provide a welcoming music, and entremeses between acts, but also accompany some actions on stage or accompaniment to the singing or dancing of the actors. The musicians, instrumentalists and singers, might as well be on stage as off, participants in the action as well as not.
The current production was conceived by Gustavo Tambascio with music as you will hear it in this performance, but in the Madrid production with most of the instrumental accompaniment in recorded form. This Dallas production goes a step further in Grover Wilkins’ hands to bring all the music to the stage in live form, as would have been the case in the original production of 1608—with the music of the time of the production.
Thus, the works to be heard in this production all can be related to music heard in post-war Madrid, whether originating in that period or not. From the fandango of Dona Francesquito as overture to Tambascio’s brilliant play on the name of Hernando with one of the most ubiquitous tunes in the musical comedy panoply, complete with the requisite ‘effects!’ The production is a complete demonstration of just how rich the live stage can be—theatrically, musically and danced.