LOS INICIOS DE LA CATEDRAL DEL GÉNERO CHICO: LA TEMPORADA 1885-1886 EN EL TEATRO APOLO DE MADRID
LOS INICIOS DE LA CATEDRAL DEL GÉNERO CHICO: LA TEMPORADA 1885-1886 EN EL TEATRO APOLO DE MADRID
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.55841324030410
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Palavras-chave: Teatro Apolo, Género Chico, zarzuela
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Keywords: Apolo theater, Género Chico, zarzuela
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Abstract: At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, the Género Chico reached immense popularity, practically monopolizing the musical leisure of the Madrid public shows. In this sense, some spaces acquired extraordinary relevance –on a cultural and social level– as well as an own identity. A paradigmatic case is the Apolo theater, considered the “Cathedral” of the Género Chico for the role it played in the establishment and in the growth of this particular theatrical format. Despite the importance of this theater, now gone, in which works were premiered that still exist today in the musical canon –cases of The Duo of La Africana (1893), La Verbena de La Paloma (1894) or La Revoltosa (1897)– to the present, the academic works that study these pieces are scarce and inconclusive, without adequately defining the constituent elements of its immense success. For the preparation of this article we have focused on the consultation and analysis of newspaper sources, particularly in the newspapers with the greatest circulation and relevance –La Correspondencia de España, La Época, La Iberia and El Imparcial– in the period addressed with the purpose to develop a multiple and plural discourse on the 1885-1886 theater season at the coliseum located on Alcalá Street. In this way, we contributed a series of strategic factors –lack of a solid artistic direction, fierce theatrical competition and political and social uncertainty– that determined the limited success that the Apolo obtained until that date.
- Jonathan Mallada Álvarez