Theatrical Forms and Production in Spanish Baroque Drama
Drama Types in Baroque Theater
In the Baroque theater, two types of drama were represented: those of a serious nature and those of a comic character.
Long-Form Plays
Serious: tragicomedy and mystery plays.
Comic: swashbuckling comedies, comedies of “big shots,” palatine plays, and burlesque comedies.
Short-Form Pieces (Interludes)
Short pieces appeared interspersed within the representation of extensive works.
Entremeses (Hors d’oeuvres)
Humorous works of a single act. The predominant action often involved erotic or burlesque matters, or the presence of bizarre characters. Some also focused on experimentation with language or theatrical resources (costumes, scenery, etc.).
Loas
Used as an introduction to the representation, seeking to win public favor and silence. They were composed of comic, sacramental, and courtly loas.
Dances
Constituted interludes throughout the representation. Their main elements were music, especially singing and dancing.
Jácaras
Sung romances, usually focused on fights involving thugs and gangsters.
Masquerades
Dances consisting of abrupt and ridiculous movements, performed in animal costumes, amid a deafening din.
Farces (Farsas)
Mixtures without any order, brief comic structures that served as a pretext for dancing and singing.
Elements of Theatrical Representation
Visual Elements
- Costumes: Much richer in courtly theater and mystery plays, they quickly communicated the character’s condition to the audience.
- Scenery: The structure of the corrales (public theaters) was utilized for the scenery. Curtains represented interior spaces. Exteriors were suggested using plants and rocks.
- Lighting: Candles were used to indicate internal action, and torches/lamps for external scenes.
Auditory Elements
- Noise: Fulfilled several functions: announcing the beginning of the action or a character’s entrance/exit, and helping the audience imagine events occurring offstage.
- Music: Served to highlight the action and indicated changes in location, as well as entrances and exits of characters. Musicians concluded the representation. Music gained greater importance in courtly theater and mystery plays.
Lope de Vega: Creator of National Comedy
Lope de Vega, in addition to cultivating wisdom and narrative poetry, established himself as the playwright of national comedy.
Characteristics of Lope de Vega’s Works
Lope de Vega’s dramatic production, intended for representation in the public theaters, is characterized by the mixture of the religious and the popular. He sought his arguments in proverbs, folk songs, ballads, the Bible and hagiography, mythology, stories, and national legends.
He attempted to satisfy everyone in several ways: through the actions (plots), appealing to the common people, and through his verses, appealing to educated viewers.
Major Works by Lope de Vega
- Palatine Comedy: The Dog in the Manger
- Biblical Comedies
- Plays of Saints
- Mythological Comedies
- Serious Comedies: Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña, Fuente Ovejuna, The Best Mayor, The King
- Tragedies
- Courtly Theater
Analysis of Fuente Ovejuna
The originality of Fuente Ovejuna lies in the invention of the collective character of the town, which ends the injustice of Commander Gómez through rebellion and tyrannicide.
The work has a dual action: the town of Fuente Ovejuna, victim of the tyrant, and the Royal City, which gives the drama a political dimension. The Commander also suffered the wrath of the Catholic Monarchs when he reached the villages of Ciudad Real. This further justifies tyrannicide as it restores the legal order: that of the absolute monarchy.
Analysis of Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña
Unlike Fuente Ovejuna, this drama revolves around a commander, but Lope focuses on an individual drama of honor involving Peribáñez, a rich Old Christian farmer from Ocaña, and the Commander Don Fradique.
The Commander falls in love with Casilda, Peribáñez’s wife. He appoints Peribáñez captain and sends him to war. In his absence, the Commander returns to the farmer’s home, but Peribáñez, suspicious, returns in time and kills him. The intervention of the King, who forgives the farmer, repeats the claim of the legal order represented by the absolute monarchy, now from a social standpoint.
Contrary to Lope’s usual style, this work has only one line of argument. It is also characterized by its sharp lyricism, especially in the village scenes, which include representations of folk and traditional songs.