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from IV - EARLY MODERN SPAIN: RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
Calderón: witness and mirror to a contradictory century
The year 2000 marked the fourth centenary of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s birth. In addition to the official celebrations – exhibitions, books, conferences – there were brilliant performances of his plays, especially Calixto Bieito’s surprising and groundbreaking version of La vida es sueño (“Life is a Dream”). Some thought that, at last, Calderón was descending from the erudite library bookshelves onto the boards of present-day stages. However, on 3 December, a harsh article in the Catalan edition of El País read:
Si consideramos que un clásico es un autor importante, influyente, imprescindible para entender la historia de la literatura… no hay duda de que Calderón es un clásico. Pero si un clásico es aquel que es perpetuamente contemporáneo, aquel que siempre puede ser leído al margen de su contexto histórico, aquel que nos interpreta, que nos habla de nosotros porque habla de cosas que nunca caducan, entonces es perfectamente posible que Calderón no sea un clásico.
(If we consider that a classic is an important and influential author, indispensable to the understanding of the history of literature… there is no doubt that Calderón is a classic. But if a classic is an author who is perpetually contemporary, who can always be read outside of his/her historical context, who interprets us, who speaks to us about ourselves because he/she speaks of things that are permanent, then it is perfectly possible that Calderón may not be a classic.)
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