El teatro en Badajoz: 1860-1886. Cartelera y estudio (review)

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

MLR, 96. , 200I MLR, 96. , 200I El teatroen Badajoz.: 860-1886. Cartelera y estudio. By ANGELSU&AREZ MUNOZ. (Fuentes para la historia del teatro en Espafia, 28) Madrid: Tamesis. I997. 342 pp. ?35; $6I. This book is a good example of how the intensive study of a significantlocality can illuminate the development of (cultural)history. Such research has a necessarily fragmentarycharacter,since the exemplary nature of events is always qualifiedby the particular. However, such qualifications are themselves of the essence in understandingthe complexity of patternsof development in a geographicalregion. Angel Suarez Mufioz traces the emergence of a relativelyrich world of entertainment and culture in a town that in 8oo did not even possess a theatre. The study shows how such activityexpanded around the Teatro del Campo de SanJuan and then other local institutions,how that same theatre came to be inadequate to the town's needs, and how, as part of a wider municipalreform,a new one (theTeatro Lopez de Ayala)was graduallybuilt. The chronological confines of this study are determined by the increased availabilityof otherwiseraredocumentation with the arrivalof the Crdnica deBadajoz in 1864, and by the time span of the constructionof the new theatre (i 861-86). A rich and complex picture emerges,based not least on a refreshinglycareful and sophisticated interpretation of statistical data. Perhaps most interestingis the dynamic interplayof overlappingfactors:the impulseto civic reform; the limitations and priorities of municipal finance; the difficulties in contractingout;the trajectoriesof the changingcompaniesof actorspassingthrough the town, sometimes (in the transnationalworld of such networks)coming from Portugal;the passage of actors from company to company, partly in an effort to move around the Peninsula;the rhythms of the year; the expectations and needs dictating dates and times of performances;public taste (not least for the zarzuela); the mixtureof local efforts,nationalliterature(predominantover translations),and, in fields such as conjuring,internationalartistes;the interplayof professionalsand (apparentlylively) amateurs;the comments of local critics and their echoes of the Madrid press. The drama is but one in a range of entertainmentsin the intricate rhythms of culturallife. As with many such studies, much insight is to be gleaned from suggestive isolated details:the behaviour of the audience, the problems with decor, the concern with the (apparentlyexcellent)size and cleanlinessof new toilets, the interest in electric lighting, the dancing into the early hours, the carrying of chairs to orchestra rehearsals, and the necessity for fire exits. The cartelera which accompanies the study is very useful and instructive, as such things are, though slightlyawkwardlypresented if one is to extractsome of the importantinformation it contains. It is to be hoped that such regional investigationswill, as they should, lead to furthercomparisonsand linkswith other cities and Madriditself. UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH ANDREW GINGER Homenaje a Maria Zambrano. estudios y correspondencia. Ed. by JAMES VALENDER, CARLOSBLANCOand ARTUROSOUTOALABARCE.(Serie literatura del exilio espafiol, 4). Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico. 1998. 313 PP. $14. This book is the resultof a seriesof round table discussionson the Spanish essayist and philosopher, Maria Zambrano, which took place in Mexico in 1994. When it was decided to publish some of the contributions,other researcherscame forward with relevant studies, including Nigel Dennis and Mercedes G6mez Blesa, who made availableto the editorsa hithertounpublishedessayby Zambranoon Octavio Paz. Valender divides the book into three sections of varying lengths. The first El teatroen Badajoz.: 860-1886. Cartelera y estudio. By ANGELSU&AREZ MUNOZ. (Fuentes para la historia del teatro en Espafia, 28) Madrid: Tamesis. I997. 342 pp. ?35; $6I. This book is a good example of how the intensive study of a significantlocality can illuminate the development of (cultural)history. Such research has a necessarily fragmentarycharacter,since the exemplary nature of events is always qualifiedby the particular. However, such qualifications are themselves of the essence in understandingthe complexity of patternsof development in a geographicalregion. Angel Suarez Mufioz traces the emergence of a relativelyrich world of entertainment and culture in a town that in 8oo did not even possess a theatre. The study shows how such activityexpanded around the Teatro del Campo de SanJuan and then other local institutions,how that same theatre came to be inadequate to the town's needs, and how, as part of a wider municipalreform,a new one (theTeatro Lopez de Ayala)was graduallybuilt. The...