Cuadernos Dieciochistas (May 2015)
An Enlightened «Tonadilla» in the Context of Barcelona: Jacinto Valledor’s «El eclipse» (1778)
Abstract
Despite the interest that emerged in the last decade to rescue the eighteenth-century tonadilla from oblivion, we still know little about the links between this genre and the Enlightenment ideology of the time. The present article depicts the case of El eclipse, a tonadilla with music by Jacinto Valledor, composed for the Theater of Barcelona on the occasion of the solar eclipse of 24 June 1778. Within a particular theatrical context, this tonadilla shows a surprising interest in disseminating the astronomical phenomenon of the eclipse, even in relation to contemporary texts. Therefore, this work can be considered as «enlightened», but always within the humorous catharsis of this brief genre.
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