barbieri and zarzuela

7/27/2019 Barbieri and Zarzuela

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Barbieri and the Spanish ZarzuelaAuthor(s): Gilbert ChaseReviewed work(s):Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Jan., 1939), pp. 32-39Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/728523 .

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BARBIERI AND THE SPANISH ZARZUELABY GILBERT CHASE

IN the history of the Spanish lyrical theatre the eighteenth centuryrepresents a particularly barren period. While in France thecreators of the opira-comiquewere evolving a distinctly national typeof lyrical art, in Spain the native art was being smothered andsuppressed by the preponderance of imported Italian opera. It istrue that French opera was subject to strong Italian influences;but in France the native tradition and the cultural environmentwere powerful enough to profit by that influence without beingentirely dominated by it. In Spain, on the other hand, a combina-tion of political and artistic factors tended to favour the Italianhegemony to such an extent that its sway lasted for the better partof two centuries, thus immeasurably retarding the emergence of anindigenous lyrical art.The first Italian opera company appeared at Madrid in 1703.At that time the Spanish public was still faithful to the native artists,and if thrown upon their own resources the Italians might havefared badly. But the throne of Spain was occupied by a foreigndynasty, that of the French Bourbons. It became the fashion tofavour everything that was foreign. Royal patronage and pro-tection were accorded to the visiting Italian singers, thus estab-lishing a precedent that was to continue for generations. Thenative singers and composers did not yield without a struggle,but the odds were against them, and the Italians carried off thefinal victory. With the arrival in Spain of the famous Italiansopranist Farinelli, the supremacy of Italian opera became incon-testable. Farinelli soon established himself as a favourite at thecourt of Philip V, for only his singing had power to alleviate thatmonarch's melancholia. Under Philip V and his successor,Ferdinand VI, Farinelli was able to wield enormous influence, andfor twenty-five years he ruled the destinies of Spanish music. Need-less to say, by the time he returned to Italy in 1760 Italian opera wasfirmly implanted in Spain.In order to compete with their more successful rivals, Spanishsingers had perforce to acquire the art of bel canto; Spanish

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BARBIERIAND THE SPANISH ZARZUELAcomposers,if they wished their worksto be performed,were obligedto imitate the Italian models. Lest popular taste should proverecalcitrant to the imported styles, the theatres of the realm wereconstrained, by royal decree, to perform only works adapted fromthe Italian or the French, or written in a pseudo-classicalstyle.Any form of art springing from the vigorous roots of populartradition was tabooed.

Nevertheless, the popular tradition is everywhere and at alltimes too strongto be killed utterly, even by royal decree. In Spainthe theatre had for centuries been a truly popular art. Though itno longer enjoyed official favour, the popular theatre was kept alivein Spain during the eighteenth century by the will of the people.In conjunction with music its chief manifestationwas in the formknown as the tonadilla. This was a short theatrical piece, usuallyof a humorous or satirical nature, reflecting the daily life of thepeople. Sometimes it was written for one singer only; but in itsmore extended forms the tonadillaapproximated to a brief comicopera, in which singing alternated with spoken dialogue. His-torically the chief significanceof the tonadilla s that it became theprincipal rallying-pointof those artists-singers, composers,drama-tists-who were determinedto keep alive the vital sparkof the nativepopular tradition in face of the overwhelming Italian invasion.The form reached its apogee in the final decades of the eighteenthcentury and the first decade of the nineteenth; thereafter itdeclined and became extinct, superseded by the revived andmodified zarzuela,whose most notable cultivator during the nine-teenth century was FranciscoAsenjo Barbieri.Barbieri was the first Spanish composer to rebel resolutelyagainst the predominant Italianism and deliberately to seek hisinspiration in popular sources, creating at least two works, 'Pany toros' (I864) and 'El barberillo de Lavapies' (1874), in whichthe picturesque and highly-coloured Spain of Goya's time lives asvividly as it does in the worksof that great painterhimself. Barbieriwas perspicaciousenough to perceive that a really national lyricalart, even in the domain of" grand " opera, could not be created bythe importation or imitation of foreign models, but must have itsroots in the innate characteristicsof the Spanish people and in theglorious traditions of the Spanish classical drama-an essentiallypopular art. As he wrote in a letter to his friend Pedrell: "Thegeneral taste of the Spanish people has always manifested itself inthe theatre by the approval bestowed upon those works which, totheir historicalor fictional interest, whether comic or serious, haveunited a variety of entertainingand picturesqueincidents. We can

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MUSIC AND LETTERSonly conclude that our much-desired Spanish opera, if it is to havea distinctly national character, must be above all varied andpicturesque,without excluding, even in the most serious subjects, thecomical and popular elements."Barbieri himself never undertook the composition of " serious "opera. But he never ceased to speculate on the question of a nationalopera, and in the letter quoted above, written in his sixty-sixthyear, he refers to the subject of his own attitude in the matter:" Though my character or the circumstances of the moment causedme to work in the purely comic field of the zarzuela, I assure you that,old as I am, I would still venture to try my powers in the field ofopera, if I could find an author with whom I could come to anunderstanding." What Barbieri might have done in the realm ofopera is purely a matter of conjecture; but what he accomplishedin the lighter form he chose to cultivate was of real and definiteservice to Spanish music : he pointed the way to the practicalrealization of a lyrical art based on native popular sources insteadof upon the slavish imitation of foreign models and the repetitionof artificial conventions. In the words of Manuel de Falla, thefigure of Barbieri " stands out sharply from the group of composersof that period. ' Pan y toros' and ' El barberillo de Lavapies'evoke the rhythmical and melodic characteristics of the Spanishsongs and dances from the end of the eighteenth century and thebeginning of the nineteenth. These works have exerted a greatinfluence upon Spanish composers ".Francisco Asenjo BarbieriOl)was born in Madrid on August 3rdI823. By an interesting coincidence his godmother was a daughterof Bias de Laserna, one of the most famous composers of tonadillas.At the age of seven he was sent to school and showed extraordinaryaptitude for learning, but was so unruly that his grandfather senthim to a stricter school, in a convent near Madrid. There heassimilated Latin and rhetoric with the same facility, but the friarsfound his mischievous propensities too much to cope with, so thathe returned to Madrid. He was now about twelve, and began tothink of studying for a career. He first thought of medicine, butthe dissection-room aroused such repugnance in him that withina year he abandoned this idea. He then studied seriously to becomean engineer; but it was not long before he discovered where hisinclinations really lay.Barbieri's family was at that time living in the Teatro de laCruz, one of the leading Madrid theatres, of which his maternal

(1)His patronynic was Asenjo but, following a custom not unusual in Spain, hepreferred to use his mother's family name, Barbieri.

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BARBIERI AND THE SPANISH ZARZUELAgrandfather, Don Jose Barbieri, was caretaker. This theatre wasused for the performance of Italian opera, and of course youngBarbieri had ample opportunity for attending both the rehearsalsand the performances,which held for him an immense fascination.It was thus that he discovered his musical vocation, and he imme-mediately begged his parents to allow him to pursuehis inclinationsin this direction. They, however, were cool to the idea, and onlyagreed to let him study music as a pastime. His first music teacherwas a member of the theatreorchestra,DonJose OrdonezMayorito.By 1837 he had made such progressthat he was ready to enterthe Royal Conservatory, hen known as the Conservatoriode MariaCristina, in honour of the fourth wife of Ferdinand VII, underwhose auspices the institution had been founded in I830. MariaCristina was an Italian, an amateurof belcantoand a warm admirerof Rossini. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Con-servatory established by her should have been primarily intendedto promote the Italian school of singing and composition. Thefirst director of the new Conservatorywas an Italian singer namedFrancesco Piermarini, and the first professorof composition wasRam6n Carnicer (I789-I855), who had made his reputation as acomposerof Italian operas. Such was the all-pervadingatmosphereof Italianism that dominated the official portion of Barbieri'smusical education.At the ConservatoryBarbieri studied singing under BaltasarSaldoni, clarinet under Ram6n Broca, piano under Pedro Albenizand compositionunder Ram6n Carnicer. About three years later,however, his studies were interrupted by the lack of financialmeans. His father had been killed in the Carlist civil war, hismother had remarried and gone to live elsewhere. Hence Barbieriwas left alone in Madrid without resourcesand found himselfobligedto concentrate on keeping body and soul together. As far as hismusical education was concerned, this misfortune was really ablessingin disguise, for he was now free from the Italianized atmo-sphere of the Conservatoryand was thrown into intimate contactwith the life and the music of the Spanishpopulace.He joined the band of the National Militia, receiving the meagrepittance of three realesa day. He also played the clarinet in second-rate theatres,at dances and even in strollingstreet-bands. He gavepiano lessons, he copied music and he became a chorus-singerinoperas. Eventually he rose to be prompterand then chorus-masterof an Italian opera company with which he toured the northernprovinces. One night when the company was about to give aperformance of 'The Barber of Seville' in Pampeluna, the bass

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MUSIC AND LETTERSbecame indisposed and was unable to appear. Barbieri, at amoment's notice, stepped into the part of Don Basilio-and made agood job of it. But in Bilbao the company failed, and Barbieriwas obliged to make his way back to Madrid-on foot. This wasin the year I844.These were truly to be Barbieri's Wanderjahre, or in May ofthe same year he was engaged as conductor of another Italian operacompany touring the south-east of Spain, and once again-failurehaving attended the enterprise-he was obliged to undertake along return journey to Madrid on foot. He must have made hisway as a sort of wandering minstrel, for he played to perfection thattypical Spanish instrument, the bandurria, and he had a pleasingvoice. Surely it was this contact with the popular soul of Spain,gained while treading its soil from north to south and east to west,that kept Barbieri from succumbing completely to the artificialalien influences that dominated the lyric theatre in Spain duringhis time.He accepted a position as musical director of a college inSalamanca, but soon returned to Madrid, which from I846 becamethe centre of his activities. He was eager to establish a Spanishopera company in Madrid and actually attempted to launch suchan enterprise in conjunction with the composer Basili. But theenterprise met with no support, either from the public or thegovernment, and had to be abandoned. In I847 Barbieri wasappointed secretary to the musical section of the Liceo of Madrid,and from that time his career as a composer began to develop withincreasing success. In 1850 his first comic opera, ' Gloria y peluca ',was received with favour, and the following year he achieved famewith 'Jugar con fuego'. Henceforth he wrote regularly for thestage, composing in all seventy-seven zarzuelas, some of whichenjoyed tremendous popularity.The zarzuela, of course, is the traditional Spanish form of comicopera. The name originated in the seventeenth century and wasused to designate a play with music, in which songs and chorusesalternated with spoken dialogue. The earliest prototype of thezarzuela is to be found in the eclogues, or pastoral plays, of the poet-musician Juan del Encina (I469-I534), who is considered thefounder of the Spanish lyrical theatre. During the seventeenthcentury, as we know, the Spanish drama flourished vigorously, itschief representatives being Lope de Vega and Calder6n de la Barca.Although little of the music has survived, we know from contem-porary records that music played an important part in the Spanishdrama of this period. The first work corresponding to the zarzuela

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BARBIERI AND THE SPANISH ZARZUELAtype was Calder6n's 'El jardin de Falerina', which was performedin I648 at the palace of La Zarzuela, near Madrid, built byPhilip IV. It was from the association with this palace that thezarzueladerived its name.The Spanish classicalzarzuela, n two acts, continued to flourishduring the second half of the seventeenth century, but it was acourtly rather than a popular type of entertainment, generallytreating of mythological or allegorical subjects. During the firsthalf of the eighteenth century the zarzuelaunderwent various modi-fications, and its form was not very definitely fixed. Towards themiddle of the century it received a renewed impulse from theplaywrightRam6n de la Cruz,who gave it a morepopularcharacter,replacing the heroic and legendary heroes of the classical zarzuelaby types taken from daily life. It was this popular zarzuelaof thelate eighteenth century that Barbieri wished to revive.While most of his contemporaries were content with facileimitations of French and Italian models, Barbieri attempted torecapturesome of the essenceof Spanishlife in his zarzuelas. He didnot always succeed in rising above his time and his environment;and, indeed, the majority of his works are as insignificant andephemeralas those of the other nineteenth century zarzuelistas.Yettwice at least he struck a truly popular chord, and this, togetherwith his musicological labours, is enough to make him loom headand shoulders above such time-servingmediocritites as Arrieta andGaztambide. The former, like the frog in the fable, thought thathe could create Spanish " grand opera" simply by puffing up thezarzuelabeyond its natural proportions. He was completely domi-nated by Italian influences. Gaztambide, on the other hand, hadyielded to the fascinationof Frenchlight operaand made a profitablebusinessout of transplantingthis form to his native soil.These three, Arrieta, Gaztambide and Barbieri, comprised thepopular triumvirate of the Spanish zarzuela,which now assumedtwo well-defined forms: the zarzuelagrande, n two or more acts,and the genero hico, n one act. It was at the instigation of thistriumvirate that the Teatro de la Zarzuela was constructed inMadrid.They wrote the musicfor the allegoryentitled 'La Zarzuela'which was performed at the inauguration of the theatre onOctober Ioth 1856. In this curiouspiece the historyof the zarzuelafrom its originsup the middleof the nineteenthcenturyis allegoricallytraced. La Zarzuela is representedby a young Spanish gipsy girl,who is wooed by Pierrot (French music), Harlequin (Italian music)and Tac6n (Spanish folk-music). Then Figaro, with his guitar,representingthe eclecticism of Rossini, advises her to don Pierrot's

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MUSIC AND LETTERShat, Harlequin's mask and Tacon's cape, assuring her that in thisguise she will be acclaimed everywhere. But La Zarzuela refusesto follow Figaro's advice, declaring that she prefers to remainherself. But she keeps Figaro's guitar. Eclecticism is to be therule of the day.Barbieri endeared himself to the Madrid public by his evocationof the popular life of the capital. The tremendous success obtainedby 'Pan y toros' in I864 was due in considerable measure to thelibretto, which brought the picturesque figure of Goya upon thestage, together with the majas and manolos whom Goya himselfloved to paint. The scene is laid in Madrid in the early nineteenthcentury, and the plot concerns a political conspiracy, in which Goyaand the torerosplay a prominent part. Musically, the chief interestof the work lies in its exploitation of popular elements. There is ascene, for instance, in which the torerosand the manoleria escortGoya and the Princess de Luzan, singing a chorus in the popular styleto the accompaniment of native instruments: bandurrias,vihuelasand panderas. Such a vividly popular evocation is a far cry from theartificial cliches of the Franco-Italian imitators.

Though he was a prolific composer, Barbieri also devoted muchof his energy to other musical occupations. From i864 he wasactive as a conductor, and he took the initiative in organizingorchestral concerts which became an important factor in the musicallife of Madrid. In 1859 he organized the Conciertos Espirituales,and later he inaugurated another series of classical concerts, out ofwhich arose the Sociedad de Conciertos de Madrid. As conductorof this concert society he made invaluable contributions to themusical culture of the capital by performing the symphonies ofMozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, and choral works byHandel, Mozart, Rossini, &c. Only by bearing in mind the lowstate of musical culture in Spain at this time can we appreciate thefull significance of Barbieri's achievements in this field.In I868 Barbieri was appointed professor of harmony and ofthe history of music at the Madrid Conservatory. He devoted muchtime to musicological research and built up a very valuable musicallibrary, which at his death he left to the Real Academia de SanFernando, of which he was a member. It was the Academia deSan Fernando which published, in I890, Barbieri's 'Cancioneromusical de los siglos XV y XVI '. In this important work Barbieritranscribed a manuscript collection of Spanish folksongs from thefifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which he had discovered in theRoyal Library at Madrid. The publication of this cancionerodid agreat deal towards drawing attention to the beauties of Spain's

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BARBIERI AND THE SPANISH ZARZUELA 39traditional music, and its appearance contributed largely to themodern revival of Spanish musical art.

In 1892 Barbieri was made a member of the Royal SpanishAcademy. He was the firstmusician to receive that honour. It wasfully deserved,for no other musicianof his time contributed so muchto the musical culture of Spain. With every factorof education andenvironment against him, obliged to rely solely upon his ownresources and his own energy, he made a noble and disinterestedeffort to free Spanish music from alien shackles, and to discoverand assert its true character. In ' Pan y toros' and ' El Barberillode Lavapies' he created compositionsin which the popular spiritof Spain still palpitates. In the lyric theatre, in the revival ofpopular music, in the field of historical investigation, in the sphereof concert performance,he was a gifted innovator. When he diedin 1894 Spain lost one of its most attractive and talented musicalfigures of the nineteenth century.

barbieri and zarzuela

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