A sainete (farce or titbit) was a popular Spanish comic opera piece, a one-act dramatic vignette, with music. It was often placed at the end of entertainments, or between other types of performance. It was
vernacular
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
in style, and used scenes of low life. Active from the 18th to 20th centuries, it superseded the
entremés In 16th- and 17th-century Spanish drama, an entremés (plural entremeses) was a short, comedy, comic theatrical performance of one act (drama), act, usually played during the interlude of a performance of a long dramatic work. The ''entremés'' form ...
. Among its most prolific composers were
Ramón de la Cruz
Ramón de la Cruz (28 March 1731 – 5 March 1794) was a Spanish neoclassical dramatist.
Born in Madrid, he was a clerk in the ministry of finance. He is the author of nearly 400 ''sainete
A sainete (farce or titbit) was a popular Spanish com ...
and
Antonio Soler.
The genre, known as the ' was also found in
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
, with composers such as
Josep Ribas
Josep Ribas (1882–1934) was a Catalan composer.
He is best remembered today for the Catalan-language sainet ''Pel teu amor'' 1922,Revista d'estudis catalans Deutsch-Katalanische Gesellschaft - 1996 Poal-Aregall, Miguel: Pel teu amor. Sainet li ...
contributing Catalan-language .
Sainetes began to be developed into
zarzuelas
() is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name o ...
in Cuba around 1850.
See also
*
Cuban musical theatre Cuban musical theatre has its own distinctive style and history. From the 18th century (at least) to modern times, popular theatrical performances included music and often dance as well. Many composers and musicians had their careers launched in the ...
References
Musical theatre
Theatrical genres
History of theatre
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