''The Butterfly's Evil Spell'' (''El maleficio de la mariposa'') was the first play by the twentieth-century

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

.Lorca Plays
Edwards, G. 2014. Lorca Plays: 3: The Public; Play without a Title; Mariana Pineda. A

symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

work drawing inspiration from

Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

and

Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Lite ...

, especially the latter's '' The Blue Bird'' (1905), Lorca's play deals with an injured butterfly, temporarily stranded amongst other insects, that flies away despite a cockroach's love for her. Written at the invitation of impresario

Gregorio Martínez Sierra Gregorio Martínez Sierra (6 May 1881 – 1 October 1947) was a Spanish writer, poet, dramatist, and theatre director, a key figure in the revival of the Spanish theatrical avant-garde in the early twentieth century. Biography Firstborn son o ...

, it was first staged at

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Teatro Eslava Teatro may refer to: * Theatre * Teatro (band) Teatro, Italian for "theatre", is a vocal group signed to the Sony BMG music label. The members of Teatro are Jeremiah James, Andrew Alexander, Simon Bailey and Stephen Rahman-Hughes. Band membe ...

on 22 March 1920 with ballet dancer Encarnación López Júlvez, called "

La Argentinita Encarnación López Júlvez (Buenos Aires, March 3, 1898 – New York, September 24, 1945), better known by her stage name, La Argentinita, was a Spanish-Argentine flamenco dancer, choreographer and singer. La Argentinita was considered one of t ...

", as the Butterfly, and

Catalina Bárcena Catalina Bárcena (10 December 1888 – 3 August 1978 was a leading Spain, Spanish theatre actress during the early decades of the twentieth century. With her partner, Gregorio Martínez Sierra, she worked on the creation of the pioneering :es: ...

as the Cockroach. It was not well received by the public and was cancelled after only four performances.Federico Garcia Lorca
Delgado, M, M. 2008. pp39-42. Retrieved: 25/04/18 Later García Lorca would claim on various occasions that '' Mariana Pineda'' (1927) was his first play. Several aspects of the style and thematic content of ''The Butterfly's Evil Spell'' became distinguishing features of Lorca's mature drama: the exploration of symbolist stylization and non- naturalism, the incorporation of different art forms including music and ballet, bold attention to details of staging, and familiar themes such as frustrated love and the imminence of death. The work has been made into an opera by Edward Lambert.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butterflys Evil Spell, The Plays by Federico García Lorca 1920 plays Symbolist plays