Armando Discépolo (1887–1971) was an
Argentine playwright. His most productive writing time spanned from 1910 to 1934 and thereafter, he produced theatrical performances of his plays. He is credited with creating and developing the Argentine version of
grotesque literature known as
Criollo Grotesque or Creole Grotesque, which is characterized by a mixture melodramatic tragic satire and domestic discord.
Biography
Armando Discépolo was born on 18 September 1887 in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, Argentina to parents of Italian heritage. His mother, Luisa Delucchi, though Argentine by birth descended from
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
n immigrants and his father, Santo Discépolo was a musician from
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
.
Discépolo was the eldest of five children, all of whom became artists, but he and his younger brother,
tango
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...
writer
Enrique Santos Discépolo
Enrique Santos Discépolo (''Discepolín'') (27 March 1901 – 23 December 1951) was an Argentine tango and milonga musician and composer, author of famous tangos like ''Cambalache'' and many others performed by several of the most important si ...
were the most well known.
He quit school in the sixth grade and had early dreams of becoming an actor. After his father died in 1906, he debuted in a play by Félix Alberto de Zavalía but quickly got bored with the repetitive performance required for acting. After his mother discovered a notebook filled with dialogue and suggested he try writing his own works, he began composing around 1909.
His first play ''Entre el hierro'' he offered to a friend,
Pablo Podestá, who agreed to debut it; it was a resounding success. Thereafter, he created an average of two plays per year
until 1934.
In 1911, he released ''La torcaz'' at the
Teatro Nacional Cervantes and ''El rincón de los besos'' at the
Teatro Moderno. In 1912, he collaborated with
Rafael José de Rosa on ''La espuma de mar'' which was performed by the company of
Florencio Parravicini at the
Teatro Buenos Aires and his ''La fragua'' of the same year was his most acclaimed work during this early period before the emergence of his farcical style. With play ''Mustafá'' written with de Rosa, Criollo Grotesque begins to emerge.
The style is not based on a Spanish tradition, but rather an Italian one and uses passion and jealousy mixed with domestic conflict and
comic irony in a
tragic
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy i ...
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
approaching
melodrama,
but a very important element is usually that the exterior or environmental aspects are in total disharmony with the internal or human emotional aspects of the work. The play premiered in 1921 at the National Theater by the company of
Pascual Carcavallo.
With each play he created, Discépolo refined the genre. His finest works of his later period include ''Mateo'' (1923), ''Stéfano'' (1928), ''Cremona'' (1932) and ''Relojero'' (1934).
''Relojero'' would be his last written play,
though he did two screenplays and authored a script in the late 1930s and early 1940s: ''
Mateo'' (1937), ''
Giácomo'' (1939) and ''
En la luz de una estrella'' (1941).
For the remainder of his career, he produced theatrical works, many of his own, but also works by
Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...
,
Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
,
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
,
Shaw and
Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
.
He died on 8 January 1971 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Selected works
Solo theatrical productions
*''Entre el hierro'' (1910)
*''La torcaz'' (1911)
*''La fragua'' (1912)
*''El reverso'' (1916)
*''El vértigo'' (1919)
*''Mateo'' (1923)
*''Hombres de honor'' (1923)
*''Giacomo'' (1924)
*''Muñeca'' (1924)
*''Babilonia'' (1925)
*''Patria nueva'' (1926)
*''Stéfano'' (1928)
*''Levántate y anda'' (1929)
*''Amanda y Eduardo'' (1931)
*''Cremona'' (1932)
*''Relojero'' (1934)
Collaborative theatrical works
*''Espuma de mar'' (1912) with Rafael José de Rosa
*''Mi mujer se aburre'' (1914) with
Rafael José de Rosa
*''El novio de mamá'' (1914) with Rafael de Rosa and
Mario Folco
*''El patio de la flores'' (1915) with
Federico Mertens
*''El guarda 323'' (1915) with Rafael José de Rosa
*''El movimiento continuo'' (1916) with Rafael de Rosa and Mario Folco
*''Conservatorio La Armonia'' (1917) with Rafael de Rosa and Mario Folco
*''El clavo de oro'' (1920) with Rafael de Rosa and Mario Folco
*''Mustafá'' (1921) with Rafael José de Rosa
*''L´ Italia unita'' (1922) with Rafael José de Rosa
*''Giacomo'' (1924) with Rafael José de Rosa
*''El organito'' (1925) with
Enrique Santos Discépolo
Enrique Santos Discépolo (''Discepolín'') (27 March 1901 – 23 December 1951) was an Argentine tango and milonga musician and composer, author of famous tangos like ''Cambalache'' and many others performed by several of the most important si ...
Filmography
*''
El movimiento continuo'' (1916) screenwriter
*''
Mateo'' (1937) author
*''
Giácomo'' (1939) screenwriter
*''
En la luz de una estrella'' (1941) screenwriter
*''
Babilonia'' (1987) author
References
Further reading
*Dillon, Lorna.
Translating Poetics: Approaches to the Translation of a Play in the Grotesco Criollo Tradition for a Contemporary British Audience" In ''Exploración y proceso: Estudiando la Cultura Hispánica'', edited by Catherine Boyle, 185-197. Valencia: King’s College London and Biblioteca de Valencia, 2007.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Discepolo, Armando
1887 births
1971 deaths
Argentine people of Italian descent
Argentine dramatists and playwrights
People from Buenos Aires
Argentine satirists
Writers from Buenos Aires
20th-century Argentine screenwriters
20th-century Argentine male writers