Abstract

This article analyzes the production of  Calderon’s comedia Antes que todo es mi dama, directed by Adolfo Marsillach in 1987 and its rupture with the modern tradition of staging  Golden Age classical plays in Spain. This analysis studies the scenic and interpretative mechanisms used to establish an ironical  dialogue with the generic conventions of the cloak and dagger comedia genre.

Abstract

This article offers a comparison between two plays: Mudarse por mejorarse by Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mudarse por mejorarse by Fernando Zárate Castronovo (ca. 1663) in order to examine the authors’ Jewish origins, personalities and biographies. Both of them suffered harassment from other authors (Alarcón) and from Spanish Inquisition (Zárate). Alarcón, who was an isolated but peaceful man, died in Madrid the 4th of August 1639. On the contrary, Zárate, who was rebellious and defeated, died at Sevilla’s Inquisition Palace, the 18th of March 1663. As a conclusion, we can confirm that Zárate Castronovo just copied the title of Alarcón’s comedy to be able to relate it to the unconscious desire of «change» the physical appearence (Alarcón) or the fate (Zárate).