Spanish Expert Addresses the Topic “Music and Words: the Musical Monologue, the Unknown Genre of Musical Theater”

Spanish Expert Addresses the Topic “Music and Words: the Musical Monologue, the Unknown Genre of Musical Theater”
Santo Domingo, February 17, 2014

With the objective of fostering creativity in the makers of theatrical art and to encourage them to use music in their creations, the Music Director of the Metropolitan Orchestra of Madrid, Virginia Gutiérrez, delivered the lecture “Music and Words: The Musical Monologue, the Unknown Genre of Musical Theater”.

The event was coordinated by the National School of Dramatic Art of the National Directorate of Fine Arts, under the Ministry of Culture, directed by Diómedes Polanco.

This conference is part of the First International Symposium on Theater Pedagogy, which will be held from March 6-10.

Polanco stated that the interest of addressing the issue of musical monologue is to promote awareness among artists from different areas that music is a useful resource, and that they can integrate it to their work because it brings a different meaning to it.

Gutiérrez made a tour of the theater from the XVII, XVIII, XIX, and XX centuries, and told the audience about how theater was subdivided during these years. She said that in the XVII century there was major theater and minor theater, where major pieces and those of brief genres were presented.

She highlighted that the musical monologue had its beginnings in Europe in the XVII century. She revealed that this genre of theater was recited and not sung, although it was accompanied by music and had a duration of between 20 and 30 minutes, during which time the actor went through all the emotional stages.

The piece “Cuenta cuento” is an example of the first musical monologues, and philosopher and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the first to write one in 1770.

The Spanish expert said that some music monologues were created in the early XIX century in Latin America, evoking patriotism; she also said that through her research she found that Dominican playwrights made musical monologues, including Freddy Ginebra, José Joaquín Fernández, and the current Director General of Fine Arts, Franklin Domínguez.