Singing and Speaking in Early Twentieth-Century Zarzuela: The Evidence from Early Recordings

ABSTRACT The present article draws upon thirty years of recorded evidence (from the first wax cylinders made in the late nineteenth century, to the first electrical recordings of the 1920s and early 1930s) to study two modes of voice production used in Spanish zarzuela: one indebted to operatic singing, characterized by timbral modification and widespread vibrato; and another one more connected to popular forms of entertainment, based on a low-larynx position and clear enunciation. Far from constituting a rigid dichotomy, this article discusses how both modes of voice production coexisted and were combined within the general governing principle of communicating text expressively, confirming—as has been suggested by recent historiographical research—zarzuela’s status as a hybrid genre able to absorb a number of influences. The article also discusses how the former of these two modes of production became more widespread at the end of the period under study, and considers the influence of recording technologies in this process.