Today starts the 2026 edition of the Festival Celestina. La España de Rojas. Besides the traditional staging of Celestina at 22:15 on Saturday (29th of August) and the many performances (see the full programme), there are a few extra activities of celestinesque interest:
Congreso Celestinesco (Friday 21st of August, 19:00, Museo La Celestina), in which Ángela Celis (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha) and Engel de la Cruz (public historian) will be talking about “La Celestina y el universo literario de Fernando de Rojas”.
Book presentation (Monday 24th of August, 20:00, Museo La Celestina), in which Isa Guerra will be presenting her latest publication “La Celestina” e il suo collegamento con la realtá (Edizioni Universum, Trento).
“Los siete idiomas antiguos de La Celestina” (Tuesday 25th of August, 20:00, Museo La Celestina), where Jesús Durán (collector) will be discussing early modern editions of Celestina, in translation.
The provisional programmes for the 14th International Congress of the Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro (AISO), to take place 20th-24th July in Buenos Aires, and the 10th International Congress of the Sociedad de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas (SEMYR), to take place 2nd-4th September in Alicante, have been circulated and are full of celestinesque papers.
Carmen Barros Serodio (Universidad de Salamanca), “La leyenda negra en dos reescrituras celestinescas modernas: recepción de Las conversiones (1981), de José Martín Recuerda, y Tragedia fantástica de la gitana Celestina (1982), de Alfonso Sastre” (miércoles 22 de julio, 10:30-12:00, AULA B302, MESA 16)
Guillermo Schmidhuber de la Mora (Universidad de Guadalajara), “Aportaciones y descubrimientos en la obra de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, y cinco lustros del hallazgo de La segunda Celestina, su comedia perdida” (miércoles 22 de julio, 15:00-16:30, AULA B303, MESA 20)
Juan Bris García (independiente), “La resonancia y recapitulación de los mitos de la Comedia de Calisto y Melibea en los parlamentos finales de Pleberio (Panel CELPYC: Lo que la picaresca y la celestinesca esconden, miércoles 2 de septiembre, 12:00-13:30, Aula GE/0-02P)
Irati Calvo Martínez (Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea) y Soledad Castaño Santos (Universität Basel), “Evolución y reescritura fraseológica en una selección de obras del género celestinesco” (Panel CELPYC: Lo que la picaresca y la celestinesca esconden, miércoles 2 de septiembre, 12:00-13:30, Aula GE/0-02P).
Amaranta Saguar García (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), “El grabado de portada de la edición de Valencia: Juan Jofré, 1514 de la Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea: otra deuda para con la edición de las Comoediae terencianas de Estrasburgo: Johannes Grüninger, 1496″ (Panel ITINERARIOS TEXTUALES EN LA EUROPA MEDIEVAL Y MODERNA, miércoles 2 de septiembre, 17:30-19:00, Aula GE/1-07S)
In 2025, the Festival Celestina. La España de Rojas will be taking place between the 22nd and the 31st of August in La Puebla de Montalbán. The programme remains unpublished but, as usual, it will consist of a series of theatrical, musical, and cultural events related to the Spanish classic and the times of its author. However, a few important events have already been confirmed, among them, the II Jornadas Internacionales de Investigación, Divulgación y Transferencia.
This year, the Jornadas will be devoted to converso and sefardí themes, with papers by Carmen Gómez Gómez (Museo Sefardí, Toledo), Arturo Ruiz Taboada (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Ventura Leblic (Real Academia de Bellas Artes y Ciencias Históricas de Toledo). They will take place on the 22nd August 2025 at the Museo La Celestina, from 19:00 to 21:00. More information at the official website of the Festival.
On the 6th and 7th of March 2025, Carolina Calema will be staging her one person (and puppets) adaptation of Celestina in Madrid, at the Teatro Tribueñe (Calle de Sancho Dávila 31).
These are the only two perfomances programmed in Madrid so far and, as far as I know, the first ones since the Reciclásicos Festival in 2021.
Tickets can be bought on-line at the website of the Teatro Tribueñe (21€).
The official website of the Festival Celestina. La España de Rojas has been updated for its 26th edition. The programme is still uncomplete (UPDATE 09/08/2024: it is complete), but tickets can already be bought on-line. There will be different activities around the topic and the period of Celestina, including two talks of celestinesque interest (of which we have already written in this blog) and the staging of Celestina itself the night of Saturday, the 24th of August.
Among the scheduled activities are the screening of the RTVE production Los Libros: La Celestina, a 1974 adaptation of the Spanish classic (which we have already shared in this blog), the representation of an Inquisitorial trial, and several theatrical and dance and music performances.
It is highly recommended to buy tickets in advance, to ensure access to the activity. For the talks of cultural nature, entrance is free until capacity is reached, although it is recommended to register for “La hechicería en tiempos de Celestina” (here).
