Four Comedies by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

2021 · University Press of Kentucky

Calderón, the great dramatist of Spain's Golden Age, was a skilled writer of comedy. His serious dramas have long been highly regarded in the English-speaking world, but his many sparkling comedies are an untapped reservoir for the contemporary theater. The four plays in this volume, three of which appear in English for the first time, have been translated by Kenneth Muir, the noted British scholar and director. These are comedies of intrigue. They turn on mysterious, quarrels, and jealousies, and they abound in complication and misunderstandings, yet in the end all is explained, to the delight of the audience. Muir's long experience with acting and directing and his keen ear for the nuances of the English language, together with his perceptive critical scholarship, have enabled him to produce a text that actors can speak naturally, and that modern audiences can enjoy as did the audiences of seventeenth-century Spain. The graceful, poetical dialogue and the masterly stagecraft of Calderón are undiminished in these deft translations. The plays featured are From Bad to Worse, The Secret Spoken Aloud, The Worst is Not Always Certain, and The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Name. Ann L. Mackenzie has provided an introduction to each play and notes on the text that will be useful to the actors and directors who seek to present these comedies as they were intended—on the stage.

La tour de Babel

by Pedro Calderon De La Barca

2007 · Editions L'Harmattan

Au milieu du XVIIème siècle, Calderon était le seul auteur d'auto-sacramentels joué à Madrid. Esprit à la fois débridé et logique, poète et dramaturge, Calderon a été salué par les romantiques allemands comme leur complice en symbolisme. Dans "La tour de Babel", Héber, l'hébreu est le seul personnage qui ose s'opposer à Nemrod, bâtisseur sacrilège d'une tour qui veut monter jusqu'au trône de Dieu. Un lyrisme communicatif !