Goyescas: A Performer's Guide

Abstract

Abstract Opera in Spain developed slowly in comparison to its European neighbors in Italy, France, and Germany, whose traditions of opera were present beginning in the seventeenth century. Spain had a long tradition of spoken drama, many of which had robust musical components. The popularity of opera as a genre in other European countries perhaps inspired Spanish composers to create their own unique nationalistic style of opera in the seventeenth century: zarzuela. Zarzuela remained popular through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and eventually composers began to try their hand at writing opera in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One of the most recognized composers of Spanish opera during this period was Enrique Granados (1867-1916), who wrote the 1915 opera Goyescas. Unlike opera in the standard language canon, there are limited resources available to performers as a guide to Spanish opera and pronunciation. In creating a performer’s guide for Enrique Granados’ opera Goyescas, I hope to offer an additional resource to singers for an opera that has no existing phonetic transcription and one English translation currently available. This guide includes an introduction to the work, which contains information about the composer, librettist, and the artist who inspired the work. It also contains a summary of the opera’s plot and cultural influences that inspired writing the work, such as Goya’s artistic influence, the piano suite it was modeled after, and the majo culture. The most substantial portion of this guide is an original English translation of Fernando Periquet Zuaznábar’s libretto. The translation is accompanied by a word for word International Phonetic Alphabet transcription.