El Poeta
Calculista (1804)
El Poeta Calculista, Manuel García's
operatic
monologue for tenor, was composed in 1804 and premiered at the Teatro
de los Caños del Peral (site of the present Teatro Real) in
Madrid on 28 April 1805. It was a sensation at its premiere and also
when first performed at the Odéon in Paris on 15 March 1809. On
that occasion four of the eight vocal numbers had to be repeated. This
is a testimony to the great stamina of García who had to sing,
declaim spoken monologue, pantomime, dance and act for the duration of
the work without intermission.
The story describes a poor poet, who was working as a scribe for
another poor poet who has just died. Having inherited his master's
manuscripts, the poet/scribe "calculates" how to use them to his good
advantage. He thus embarks upon a magnificent daydream, imagining his
future creations and ultimate success (both literary and
financial). At the end he realizes the futility of a career as poet and
leaves to seek employment as a night watchman.
The concept of El poeta calculista
was strikingly original in Madrid at the time—a refreshing change from
the translations of maudlin French operettas that inundated the Spanish
stage. The text has been attributed (without proof) to Diego del
Castillo, but may well have been written by García himself.
Throughout his career he wrote works with autobiographical touches and
the plight of the poor poet could certainly be applied to García
who was frustrated with the theatrical scene in Madrid and was soon to
leave to further his career in Paris, Naples, Rome and London.
As regards the music, García, of course, composed it for his own
voice and this gives the modern audience an idea of his talents at the
time. Certainly El poeta caluclista
required considerable skill: great agility, a range from low A to high
C (and even a shouted high E), stamina to sing, speak, act and dance
without stop for the duration of the work and—especially—a great sense
of the comical, in order to hold in the palm of his hand an audience
that could become demonstratively nasty if not pleased.
The single most famous piece from El
poeta calculista, and the only composition of García to
endure, was No. 5, the song of the horse, "Yo que soy contrabandista."
It is difficult for us to imagine the hold that this little song had on
French Romantics of the early nineteenth century. García's own
daughters (Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot-Garcia) frequently
interpolated it in the lesson scene from Il barbiere di Siviglia—always to
thunderous applause. Apart from its musical charm (which would have
seemed exotic to a French audience), the song's message struck a
philosophical chord with the Romantics, as a symbol of independence and
freedom (similar to poetic themes heard later in the century in Bizet's
Carmen). Victor Hugo quoted
the song in his first novel, Bug-Jargal,
Franz Liszt wrote a Rondeau
fantastique based on it, and Federico García Lorca used
it as late as 1925 in his Mariana
Pineda. It is George Sand, the lover of Frédéric
Chopin, however, who gives us the clearest insight into the Romantic
significance of "Yo que soy contrabandista" in the introduction to her
1837 play, Le Contrebandier,
inspired by the song. According to her, García's message was
that the life of a smuggler was the model for the life of an artist!
Certainly this was true at least for the Romantic artist and that model
continues to the present day (one could argue that we, in the
twenty-first century, are philosophically still in the nineteenth
century as far as society's conception of the artist is concerned).
Whether or not this actually was García's philosophical position
is debatable, but clearly the generation after him took it as their
starting point.
Garcia
conserva toujours
García always retained a
une prédilection
paternelle paternal
predilection for his
pour sa chanson
du
song of the Contrabandista. In
Contrebandier. Il
prétendait, his days of
poetic verve, he
dans ses jours de
verve
held that the movement, the
poétique, que le
mouvement, character, and the meaning
le caractère et le sens
de of this
musical pearl summed
cette perle musicale
étaient up the life
of an artist—for which,
le résumé de la vie
d'artiste, in his words, the life
of the
de laquelle, à son dire, la
vie smuggler was the ideal. The
de contrebandier est
l'idéal. "ay, jaleo,"
this untranslatable
Le aye, jaleo, ce
aye
"ay" which makes the horse's
intraduisible quie
embrase nostrils
flare and sends the
les narines des chevaux
et dogs yelping to
the hunt,
fait hurler les chiens à
la
seemed to García more
chasse, semblait à
Garcia
energetic, more profound and
plus énergique, plus
profond better to put away chagrin,
et plus propre à enterrer
le than any
philosophical maxim.
chagrin, que toutes
les
He always used to say that he
maximes de la
philosophie. wanted,
as the only epitaph on
Il disait sans cesse
qu'il
his tomb, Yo que soy el
voulait pour toute
épitaphe
Contrabandista,—so much
sur sa tombe: Yo que soy
el were both Othello and Don
Juan
Contrabandista, tant
Othello identified with
the imaginary
et don Juan s'étaient
identifiés character of the
avec le personnage
imaginaire Contrabandista.
du Contrebandier...
[George Sand, "Le Contrebandier," Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris,
1 January 1837; quoted in James Radomski, Manuel García (1775-1832),
p. 71)]
Read a review
of Mark Tucker's recording of El
poeta calculista by Glyn Pursglove.
Download the libretto and vocal score of El poeta calculista:
El
poeta calculista, Libretto
El
poeta calculista, Overture
El poeta calculista, No. 1
El
poeta calculista, No. 2
El
poeta calculista, No.
3
El
poeta calculista, No. 4
El
poeta calculista, No. 5
El
poeta calculista, No. 6
El
poeta calculista, No.
7
El
poeta calculista, No. 8
El
poeta calculista, No. 9
El
poeta calculista, No. 10
El
poeta calculista, No. 11
El
poeta calculista, No. 12
El
poeta calculista, No.
13
El
poeta calculista, No. 14
Libretto, translation, and vocal score are for personal use only.
All copyright restrictions apply.
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