UC Riverside

In my dissertation, I propose a new way of reading Spanish opera at the crossroads of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, clarifying the definition of the so-called ópera española (Spanish opera). Unlike many European countries, Spain never developed a national style of opera. Instead, it showed a preference for the zarzuela, a kind of operetta alternating spoken dialogue and musical numbers. In the late nineteenth century, zarzuela was a one-act spectacle, and historians agree that it was the most representative type of Spanish musical theater. To be sure, Spain had also developed an operatic tradition, but it was indebted to Italian models. Starting from the 1850s, while engaging in the debate regarding Wagnerian vs. Italian opera, Spanish composers and critics concurrently sought to create ópera española by employing the Spanish language and folklore. This led to an impasse, and composers kept returning to the more lucrative zarzuela. However, leading composers such as Bretón, Granados, Albéniz, Torroba, and Falla, together with others like Usandizaga and Penella, were nonetheless able to produce successful operas characterized by a great deal of realism. While traditionally considered realistic operas with some Spanish color, upon closer examination, such works share unique features, which distinguish them from both the hybrid zarzuela-opera model and the tout court Italian model: namely, an emphasis on realism, the use of national language, and the unique concurrence of both Italianate elements (in terms of the melodic invention) and Wagnerian ones (in the use of leitmotiv and prominence of the orchestra). In short, these operas present the peculiar topoi of Italian verismo opera. After revisiting the highly controversial definition of verismo, which has been broadly assigned to too many operas, I suggest approaching Spanish realist operas through the prism of the verismo model. This provides a new and interesting perspective, and it allows a deeper understanding of many works of the time while concurrently providing a model that is useful in re-approaching some neglected Spanish operas. The last part of the dissertation is devoted to three case studies, La Dolores by Bretón, Las golondrinas by Usandizaga, and El gato montés by Penella, providing three unique examples of Spanish verismo at the crossroads of the centuries.