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24th Festival Celestina (24th-28th of August 2022, La Puebla de Montalbán): PROGRAMME RELEASED

The 24th Festival Celestina will be taking place between the 24th and the 28th of August 2022 in La Puebla de Montalbán (Toledo). This is the first in-person edition of the festival since the COVID19 lockdown, so that everybody is looking forward to it more than ever. This is particularly noticeable in the brand new website of the festival, which is a significant improvement with regard to the old web page. The programme can be downloaded in PDF format here.

José Juan Morcillo Pérez (IES Andrés de Vandelvira, Albacete) will be giving the usual lecture at the Museo Celestina on Friday, 26th of August 2022, at 20:00. The topic is “Fernando de Rojas, autor de la novela jurídica Lazarillo de Tormes“, in which I suppose that the speaker will be defending his thesis that Fernando de Rojas is the author of Lázaro de Tormes.

There will also be an educational event on Thursday, 25th of August 2022, at 20:00 at the Museo Celestina. In it, Ignacio Arcos Gil (IES María Pacheco, Toledo) will use the radio adaptation of Celestina of the Cadena Ser radio programme Un libro, una hora to introduce the audience to key aspects of the work.

The traditional underground theatre plays will also return: En busca de Calisto y Melibea (for children), Escuela de Celestinas (age 16+), ¡Redención para Pármeno! (Reflexiones sin cabeza) (age 12+), Antinomia (general audience), Moldes que escupen fuego (En la imprenta de Juan de Lucena) (general audience), Las hermanas Celestinas (general audience), Melibea a las nueve. Un viaje de cuento (for children) and La Rueda (general audience). Tickets for the underground plays can be bought at the official website of the festival.

Outside, at the Plaza Mayor, the theatre play Francisco Hernández de La Puebla (Periplo y testamento) is programmed for the first day of the festival. The monologue El Lazarillo de Tormes by Rafael Álvarez “El Brujo” will be taking place on Friday, 26th of August 2022, at 22:00. The next day, at the same time, the play La grande enfermedad (Peste y milagro en Montalbán) will be staged. On the final day, on Sunday, the play will be La Celestina by Albacity Corporation.

As usual, during the festival there will be a medieval fair and the Jornada de la Tapa taking place. And, as usual, I will not be able to attend. Traditions do not get lost.

«Contarte he maravillas…», International Congress in homage to Joseph T. Snow, Madrid, 25th-29th of October 2021 (BNE-UCM)

From the 25th to the 29th of October 2021 the International Congress in homage to Joseph T. Snow «Contarte he maravillas…» will be taking place at the Biblioteca Nacional de España (25th, 26th and 29th of October 2021) and the Universidad Complutense (27th and 28th of October 2021). Almost hundred specialists on the topics most studied by Joseph T. Snow, that is, Alfonso X, the Libro de buen amor, and, of course, Celestina, will reunite to celebrate Snow’s 80th birthday.

Organised by Ricardo Pichel and Ruth Martínez Alcorlo (Universidad de Alcalá), with the logistical support of Álvaro Bustos Táuler and Amaranta Saguar García (Universidad Complutense), and the technical support of Belén Almeida Cabrejas and Víctor Caballero Gómez (Universidad de Alcalá), this congress promises to be one of the most important events of international hispanomedievalism of the post-pandemic era. Of its almost hundred participants, one half will take part in person and the other half remotely, a mixed format that will make possible the participation of friends of Joseph T. Snow that, due to health problems, a full agenda or, simply, distance, are not able to travel to Madrid. In addition, the sessions will be streamed via Youtube, more precisely, through the Youtube channels of the Biblioteca Nacional de España and the Universidad Complutense, respectively. And, the most important bit: thanks to the funds contributed by the projects “HERES. Patrimonio textual ibérico y novohispano. Recuperación y memoria” (Atracción de Talento de la Comunidad de Madrid, Ref. 2018-T1/HUM-10230) and “IcoCel. La tradición iconográfica de Celestina: materialidad y recepción de las ediciones ilustradas en la Edad Moderna” (Atracción de Talento de la Comunidad de Madrid, Ref. 2018-T1/HUM-11717), and by several other sponsors, this event is totally free of charge. It is only necessary to register via a form.

Due to the huge amount of papers on Celestina, I will not be detailing them below, but linking the programme (if the PDF Viewer does not work, you can check it at the official website of the congress).

See you there!

Three papers of celestinesque interest at the II Seminario Internacional HÍLICA: “Tradición e hibridismo en la transmisión de la literatura española de los Siglos de Oro: géneros y formatos”

Next 29th and 30th of September 2021 the II Seminario Internacional HÍLICA “Tradición e hibridismo en la transmisión de la literatura española de los Siglos de Oro: géneros y formatos” will be taking place at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

According to the latest version of the programme published at the official website, there will be three papers on the iconography of Celestina being read on the first day of the event.

At 11:00 of the 29th of September, during the first session, M.ª Jesús LACARRA (Universidad de Zaragoza) and Amaranta SAGUAR GARCÍA (Universidad Complutense – Programa de Atracción de Talento) will be presenting “La ilustración en la Celestina: pervivencia de algunos grabados” and “¿A la italiana o a la alemana? Celestina, la recepción de Terencio en la temprana imprenta manual y la cuestión del género”, respectively. At 16:00, during the third session, Rafael BELTRÁN (Universitat de València) will be presenting “Sombras de Judas hasta La Celestina: imágenes híbridas de codicia, traición, suicidio y otras muertes trágicas”.

One further stage adaptation: Celestina infernal by Teatro Corsario

Some days ago I stumbled upon a poster of Celestina infernal, an adaptation of Celestina by Teatro Corsario whose principal feature is that it is entirely played by puppets. Although this concept is not totally new (I am thinking of Carolina Calema’s or Bambalina Teatre Practicable’s versions), the aesthetics absolutely are, as Teatro Corsario’s puppets are darker, somehow more grotesque and definitely more sexual. One further original aspect is that puppeteers are not on stage, so that Celestina infernal is a marionette-only show.

Until the end of 2021, Celestina infernal will be running in different Spanish and Portuguese cities:

  • 26/08/2021: Ciudad Rodrigo, Sala Tierra 12:30 and 17:30 (Feria de Teatro de Castilla y León)
  • 14/09/2021: Zaragoza, Teatro de las Esquinas, 19:30 (Festival Rayuela)
  • 30/09-03/10/2021: Valladolid, Teatro Calderón, Sala Delibes, 20:00
  • 06/10/2021: Maia, Festival FITC
  • 16/10/2021: Segovia, Teatro Juan Bravo
  • 06/11/2021: Lousada, Festival Folia
  • 20/11/2021: San Sebastián, Teatro Principal
  • 17/12/2021: Ponferrada, Teatro Bergidum
  • 18/12/2021: Toledo, Teatro Fernando de Rojas

More information at the official website.

XXIII Festival “Celestina: La España de Rojas” (26th-29th of August 2021, La Puebla de Montalbán)

The dates for the XXIII Festival “Celestina: La España de Rojas” have been confirmed: the festival will be taking place from the 26th to the 29th of August 2021 in La Puebla de Montalbán, as usual. How the festival will be adapted to the COVID-measures still in force in Castilla La-Mancha is not public yet, but everything points to the event taking place in person. In the next days, the official website should provide more detailed information on the programme and the scheduled activities.

In the meantime, you can listen to the one-hour radio adaptation of Celestina broadcasted last Sunday, 15th of August 2021, at the show Un libro, una hora of the Spanish radio station Cadena SER. Available via YouTube and through the major podcast services.