La mujer como mujer en la tonadilla a solo dieciochesca

Abstract

In order to achieve a fuller understanding of women as they are portrayed in the eighteenth-century Spanish lyric theatre, a key aspect, namely, the role of women in the tonadilla a solo repertoire, remains to be studied in depth. In this genre, the leading singing character, almost always a woman, would come on stage in order to relate or sing something of significance directly to the audience. This article considers the figure of the tonadillera—the female singer of tonadillas—as an archetypal woman who communicates not only by means of the text she delivers, but also through her body, her gestures and her music. The article analyses, for its source-material, the tonadillas of Jacinto Valledor, in which an emancipated type of woman may often be found. Though restrained of course by prevailing moral and ideological attitudes, the tonadilla was a popular type of play which functioned, in the way it was composed and performed, at the margins of the more conventional lyric theatre of the time.