THEATER: LA CALDERONA, LOVE IN ROYAL CIRCLES
Amor. Adventure. Ambition
(La Calderona as depicted by Wikipedia user Sparganum)
by Guidepost
How about having the time of your life learning about the intrigues of the royal court in Spain by watching a play? La Calderona will take the spectator from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first and back again to the sound – and dance steps – of the rap.
This musical comedy, generously spiced with acid wit, delves into the life of Madrileña Maria Ines Calderon, more popularly known as La Calderona (1611– 1646), the most important actress in the Spain of the seventeenth century who became the mistress of King Felipe IV. (Now, don’t mistake him for Felipe VI or you’ll get into trouble!)
Felipe IV recognized La Calderona’s son, John of Austria the Younger (Juan José de Austria in Spanish), as his natural son though it was rumored that John was actually fathered by Ramiro Pérez de Guzmán, Duke of Medina de las Torres, with whom La Calderona was involved at the time Felipe IV first saw, and got smitten by, the actress-singer on her debut at the Corral de la Cruz Theater in Madrid in 1627.
And would you believe? After a sensational love life in royal circles, La Calderona would actually become a nun and even get to be an abbess (1643-1646). But then an actress endowed with indomitable character could hardly be expected to live out her life within the claustrophobic walls of a cloister. She escaped and lived in the mountains of Valencia which was rechristened after her, the Sierra Calderona (Calderona Mountain Range).
Popular DJ Hardy Jay’s live performance lends additional dimension to La Calderona, a fable about one of the most important women, and at the same time the least known, in the history of Spain – about her love life, her struggle for survival (she was a foundling) and her ambitions.
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22 September – 29 December 2017
Cast: Pablo Paz, Natalia Calderón, Dj Hardy Jay
Teatro Alfil
CallePez, 10
Malasaña
28004 Madrid
Metro: Noviciado (L2, L3, L10), Tribunal (L1, L10)
Bus: 1, 2, 44, 46, 74, 75, 133, 147, 148
Price: €17-24
Time: 22:30 hours
Duración: 90 minutes
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Image
Featured image/Sparganum, CC BY-SA3.0 via Wikipedia
