A critical edition of Ni amor se libra de amor, by Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca, with music, by Juan Hidalgo

The purpose of this thesis is three-fold. First, it has been my aim to establish, as far as is possible, a reliable edition of Caldoron's mythological Court play Ni Amor so libra de amor together with the incidental music written for it by Juan Hidalgo. Secondly, while concentrating upon this one work, I consider the performance and staging techniques used in the Madrid Court theatres of the mid-seventeenth century. Thirdly, through a study of Ni Amor...'s sources and a critical assessment of the play, I hope to give some idea of the traditions from which it sprang and to put it in its cultural perspective. The first Chapter establishes the dates of composition and the detaila of the first production of the play. In the second Chapter, I examine its sources. Chapter III describes all known extant texts of the work, while Chapter IV discusses the relationships between the different voraiors and establishes a textual stemma. Chapter V is concerned with the staging of seventeenth-century Court plays in Spain, but begins with an account of the developments in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italian staging techniques which were imported into Spain, and, ends with a spocific scheme for the staging of Ni Amor. Chapter VI describes the 1679 Madrid production of the play. Chapter VII is devoted to a study of the original incidental music composed by Juan Hidalgo, and also deals briefly with the composer's life and with the role of music in Calderon's theatre. The text of the play, which includes Hidalgo's music, forms Chapter VIII. A variant list which takes into account all seventeenth-century texts of the play is included. Chapter IX consists of notes on the variants. Chapter X considers Caldpron's use of verse forms in his writing of the play, and Chapter XI discusses the relationship between Ni Amor and Calderon's two autos sacramentales Siquis y Cupido, based, as it is itself, upon the myth of Psyche and Cupid. Finally, Chapter XII is a critical study of Ni Amor. The main text of the thesis is followed by three Appendices an a Bibliography. Appendix I consists of extracts from the Genealo's a origin y noticias de los comediantes de 'naosi, a relevant to the first production of Ni Amor in 1662. Appendix II is a transcription of alternative arrangements for some of the music for the second Jornada of the play. Appendix III is a transcription of the section of le a o 666 of the Archive del Palacio Nacional de Madrid relevant to the '1679 Madrid production.The Bibliography contains the titles of both manuscript and published works consulted in the preparation of this thesis.