Fundación Juan March
Italian opera and Spanish zarzuela at the end of the 18th century

Introduction
Italian opera and Spanish zarzuela at the end of the 18th century

The 18th-century musical scene in Spain was marked by continual aesthetic disputes and cross fertilisation of Italian and Spanish genres, tensions implicit in the modernisation of music for the stage which reached its apogee during the Enlightenment. The rich heritage of Spanish Golden Age theatre, updated in the 18th century by librettists such as Cañizares y De la Cruz and composers such as Antonio Rosales, came into conflict theatrically and commercially with the Italian operatic model of composers such as Paisiello, which held sway on every European stage.

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