L' accent français de la zarzuela, un défi poético-musical : de L’Étoile du Nord à Catalina

Abstract

Zarzuela, the Spanish lyric and theatrical genre, experienced a revival from 1849 on. Indeed, a generation of composers, led by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri (1823-1894), wished to give it a national dimension. The way some musicians and authors constructed this new repertoire is very interesting. Many works were inspired by the French lyrical stage and more particularly by comic opera. We tried to solve this paradox with the literary and musical analysis of an emblematic example : L’Etoile du Nord composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) and premiered in Paris on 16 February 1854 and Catalina composed by Joaquin Gaztambide (1822-1870) and created in Madrid a few months later, on 23 October 1854. The libretto were adapted by the famous author Luis Olona (1823-1863). The choices they made to create an original work reveal an important point : far from being an atavism, the French influence has been an excuse to give free rein to Spanish creativity.