Carlos Barrai, entre el esteticismo y la reinvidicación by José Vicente Saval (review)

Abstract

1076 Reviews Although born in Galicia, Maria Casares achieved international acclaim as an outstanding tragic actress ofthe French stage. Delgado, however, emphasizes Casares's performances in Spanish: in Argentina in collaboration with director Jorge Lavelli, and in Spain, after the death of dictator Francisco Franco. She conceptualizes Casares 's career within the experience of exile. Delgado highlights Nuria Espert as 'Spain's international actress' (p. 132). She dis? cusses Espert's success as performer and director in other European countries and the United States, her collaboration with directors Lavelli and Victor Garcia, and her spe? cial role as a Catalan who generally performs in Castilian Spanish. She credits Espert with introducing such foreign authors as Brecht and O'Neill to Spanish audiences, and considers her to be an outspoken feminist and liberal influence on the Spanish stage. Delgado follows the trajectory of Catalan director Lluis Pasqual from the Teatre Lliurein Barcelona and Spain's Centro Dramatico Nacional in Madrid to the Theatre de l'Europe in Paris and then back to Spain. She explores in depth his working re? lationship with the late Fabia Puigserver and other scenographers, as well as his fostering of international collaborations. La Cubana, a Catalan performance group that emerged in 1980, stresses audience involvement and unusual settings in what Delgado has labelled 'contrived perfor? mances' (p. 225). Although the group has not toured internationally with any frequency , in Spain they have met with stunning triumphs. Their Cegada de amor, a hybridization of theatre and cinema, played to a record-breaking audience of 426,178 spectators during its run at Barcelona's Tivoli theatre in 1994-95. Delgado carefully places her various subjects within the social, political, and cul? tural contexts of their stage careers. She provides personal assessments of the many performances she has attended and gives a balanced review of published criticism for all of them. In this respect, her thorough research reveals contrastive critical and au? dience reception of productions that have played internationally. Wherever possible, she has interviewed those she studies or others who were witness to their work. The attractive volume, which features an impressive picture of Maria Casares on the cover, is enhanced by the inclusion of twenty-fivephotographs. By spotlighting the contribution of actors and directors, Maria Delgado ques? tions the primacy ofthe dramatist as focus of theatre studies. Nevertheless, her book contains such substantial information on the staging of works by Garcia Lorca, ValleInclan , and other playwrights that it increases our understanding of those authors. Her pioneering work is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in world theatre or cultural history. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Phyllis Zatlin Carlos Barral, entreel esteticismoyla reinvidicacion. By Jose Vicente Saval. Madrid: Fundamentos. 2002. 316 pp. $12.50. ISBN 84-245-0935-8. Carlos Barral is probably one of the poets of' La Escuela de Barcelona' most neglected by the critics. If he is remembered at all, it is firstlyas a celebrated publisher and secondly as a prose writer of some repute, especially with regard to his three books of memoirs. Anos de penitencia (1975), the firstof the series, is almost certainly the finestautobiographical chronicle ofthe Franco years as seen through the eyes ofa child growing up in that bleak and repressive environment. However, Carlos Barral the poet is no less interesting a chronicler ofthe Franco regime in additionto providingan allimportant link between the poets of the 1950s (Claudio Rodriguez, Angel Gonzalez, Jose Angel Valente, Jaime Gil de Biedma) and the new generation ofpoets ofthe 1960s, MLRy 99.4, 2004 1077 the novisimos: in particular, Pere Gimferrer and Guillermo Carnero. As Jose Vicente Saval amply demonstrates, Carlos Barral was one ofthe firstpoets ofthe 1950s to break with the dominant trend of the time?poesia social?both in his verse and in his critical writing: itis worth noting that his seminal essay 'Poesia no es comunicacion'?a direct attack on social poetry?was published in the same year, 1953, as Claudio Rodriguez's ground-breaking Don de la ebriedad (winner of the Premio Adonais). Like his con? temporary and fellow inebriate Jaime Gil de Biedma, Barral felt a sense of shame at belonging to a Barcelona bourgeoisie that...