Federico García Lorca

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Federico García Lorca
File:Lorca (1914).jpg García Lorca in 1914.
Born	Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca 5 June 1898(1898-06-05) Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, Andalusia, Spain
Died	19 August 1936(1936-08-19) (aged 38) Near Alfacar, Granada, Spain
Occupation	dramatist, poet, theatre director
Nationality	Spanish
Period	Modernism
Literary movement	Generation of '27
Influences Spanish folklore, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí
Influenced Leonard Cohen, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, Tim Buckley, Pablo Neruda

Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca<ref>"Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists". http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/rmcd/9780415362436/lorca.asp. </ref> (Spanish pronunciation: [feðeˈɾiko ɣarˈθi.a ˈlorka]; 5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads during the Spanish Civil War.<ref>Ian Gibson, The Assassination of Federico García Lorca. Penguin (1983) ISBN 0-14-006473-7; Michael Wood, "The Lorca Murder Case", The New York Review of Books, Vol. 24, No. 19 (24 November 1977); José Luis Vila-San-Juan, García Lorca, Asesinado: Toda la verdad Barcelona, Editorial Planeta (1975) ISBN 84-320-5610-3</ref><ref>Reuters, "Spanish judge opens case into Franco's atrocities", International Herald Tribune (16 October 2008)</ref><ref>Estefania, Rafael (2006-08-18). "Poet's death still troubles Spain". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5262420.stm. Retrieved 2008-10-14. </ref> In 2008, a Spanish judge opened an investigation into Lorca's death. The Garcia Lorca family eventually dropped objections to the excavation of a potential gravesite near Alfacar. However, no human remains were found.<ref>No remains found - Guardian article</ref><ref>"Lorca family to allow exhumation". BBC. 2008-09-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7624887.stm. Retrieved 2009-05-28. </ref>

Contents 1 Early years 1.1 As a young writer 1.2 The Republic 1.3 The Spanish Civil War and Lorca's death 1.4 Suspected motives 2 Legacy 2.1 Censorship 2.2 Excavation at Alfácar 2.3 Memorials 3 List of major works 3.1 Poetry collections 3.2 Select translations 3.3 Plays 3.4 Short plays 3.5 Filmscripts 3.6 Operas 3.7 Drawings and paintings 4 List of works based on Lorca 4.1 Criticism 4.2 Poetry based on Lorca 4.3 Musical works based on Lorca 4.4 Theatre, film and television based on Lorca 5 References 6 Sources 7 See also 8 External links 8.1 In Spanish

[edit] Early years

García Lorca was born on 5 June 1898, in Fuente Vaqueros, a small town a few miles from Granada, southern Spain. His father owned a farm in the fertile vega surrounding Granada and a comfortable villa in the heart of the city. His mother was a gifted pianist. In 1909, his family moved to the city of Granada. In 1915, after graduating from secondary school, García Lorca attended Sacred Heart University. During this time his studies included law, literature, composition and piano. During 1916 and 1917, García Lorca traveled throughout Castile, Léon, and Galicia, in northern Spain, with a professor of his university, who also encouraged him to write his first book, Impresiones y Paisajes (Impressions and Landscapes – published 1918).

[edit] As a young writer

His time at Granada's Arts Club furnished him with influential associations that would prove useful following his move, in 1919, to the Residencia de estudiantes in Madrid. Here he would befriend Manuel de Falla, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí and many other creative artists who were, or would become, influential across Spain. In Madrid, he met Gregorio Martínez Sierra, the Director of Madrid's Teatro Eslava. In 1919–20, at Sierra's invitation, he wrote and staged his first play, El maleficio de la mariposa (The Butterfly's Evil Spell). It was a verse play dramatising the impossible love between a cockroach and a butterfly, with a supporting cast of other insects; it was laughed off stage by an unappreciative public after only four performances and influenced García Lorca's attitude to the theatre-going public for the rest of his career. He would later claim that Mariana Pineda, written in 1927, was, in fact, his first play.

Early in 1922 at Granada García Lorca joined the composer Manuel de Falla in order to promote the Concurso de Cante Jondo, a festival dedicated to enhance flamenco performance. The year before Lorca had begun to write his Poema del cante jondo (not published until 1931), so he naturally composed an essay on the art of flamenco,<ref>Frederico García Lorca, "El cante jondo (Primitivo canto andaluz)" (1922), reprinted in a collection of his essays entitled Prosa (Madrid: Alianza Editorial 1969, 1972) at 7-34.</ref> and began to speak publicly in support of the Concurso. At the music festival in June he met the celebrated Manuel Torre, a flamenco cantaor. The next year in Granada he also collaborated with Falla and others on the musical production of a play for children, adapted by Lorca from an Andalucian story.<ref>The play was titled La niña que riega la albahaca.</ref><ref>José Luis Cano, García Lorca (Barcelona: Salvat Editores 1985) at 54-56 (Concurso), at 56-58 (play), and 174.</ref>

Over the next few years García Lorca became increasingly involved in Spain's avant-garde. He published poetry collections including Canciones (Songs) and Romancero Gitano (translated as Gypsy Ballads, 1928), his best known book of poetry. His second play Mariana Pineda, with stage settings by Salvador Dalí, opened to great acclaim in Barcelona in 1927. In 1926, García Lorca wrote the play The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife which would not be shown until the early 1930s. It was a farce about fantasy, based on the relationship between a flirtatious, petulant wife and a hen-pecked shoemaker.

From 1925 to 1928 he was passionately involved with Dalí.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica: "From 1925 to 1928, García Lorca was passionately involved with Salvador Dalí. The intensity of their relationship led García Lorca to acknowledge, if not entirely accept, his own homosexuality."</ref> The friendship with Lorca had a strong element of mutual passion,<ref>For more in-depth information about the Lorca-Dalí connection see Lorca-Dalí: el amor que no pudo ser and The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí, both by Ian Gibson.</ref> but Dalí (decades later) rejected the erotic advances of the poet.<ref name="conversations">Bosquet, Alain, Conversations with Dalí, 1969. p. 19–20. (PDF format) (of García Lorca) 'S.D.:He was homosexual, as everyone knows, and madly in love with me. He tried to screw me twice .... I was extremely annoyed, because I wasn’t homosexual, and I wasn’t interested in giving in. Besides, it hurts. So nothing came of it. But I felt awfully flattered vis-à-vis the prestige. Deep down I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dalí's asshole.'</ref> Towards the end of the 1920s, García Lorca became increasingly depressed, a situation exacerbated by his anguish over his homosexuality. The success of Romancero Gitano intensified a painful and personal dichotomy : he was trapped between the persona of the successful author, which he was forced to maintain in public, and the tortured, authentic self, which he could only acknowledge in private.

Growing estrangement between García Lorca and his closest friends reached its climax when surrealists Dalí and Luis Buñuel collaborated on their 1929 film Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog). García Lorca interpreted it, perhaps erroneously, as a vicious attack upon himself <ref>Buñuel, Luis. My Last Sigh. Translated by Abigail Israel. University of Minnesota Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8166-4387-3. Page 66.</ref> . At this time Dalí also met his future wife Gala. Lorca's intensely passionate but fatally one-sided affair with the sculptor Emilio Aladrén was also collapsing as the latter became involved with his future wife. Aware of these problems (though not perhaps of their causes), García Lorca's family arranged for him to take a lengthy visit to the United States in 1929–30.

While in America, García Lorca stayed mostly in New York City, where he studied briefly at Columbia University School of General Studies. His collection Poeta en Nueva York explores alienation and isolation through some graphically experimental poetic techniques. His Play El Público (The Public) was not published until the late 1970s and has never been published in its entirety (the manuscript is lost).

Lorca kept Huerta de San Vicente as his summer house in Granada from 1926 to 1936. Here he wrote, totally or in part, some of his major works, among them When Five Years Pass (Así que pasen cinco años) (1931), Blood Wedding (Bodas de sangre) (1932), Yerma (1934) and Diván del Tamarit (1931–1936). The poet lived in the Huerta de San Vicente in the days just before his arrest and assassination in August 1936.<ref>h Huerta de San Vicente</ref>

Although García Lorca's artwork doesn't often receive attention he was also a keen artist.<ref>Cecilia J. Cavanaugh "Lorca's Drawings And Poems",</ref><ref>Mario Hernandez "Line of Light and Shadow" (trans) 383 drawings</ref>

[edit] The Republic

His return to Spain in 1930 coincided with the fall of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the re-establishment of the Spanish Republic. In 1931, García Lorca was appointed as director of a university student theatre company, Teatro Universitario la Barraca (The Shack). This was funded by the Second Republic's Ministry of Education, and it was charged with touring Spain's remotest rural areas in order to introduce audiences to radically modern interpretations of classic Spanish theatre. As well as directing, García Lorca also acted.

While touring with La Barraca, he wrote his now best-known plays, the Rural Trilogy of Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba). He distilled his theories on artistic creation and performance in a famous lecture Play and Theory of the Duende, first given in Buenos Aires in 1933. García Lorca argued that great art depends upon a vivid awareness of death, connection with a nation's soil, and an acknowledgment of the limitations of reason.<ref>Arriving Where We Started by Barbara Probst, 1998 — she interviewed surviving FUE/Barraca members in Paris.</ref> The group's subsidy was cut in half by the new government in 1934, and la Barraca's last performance was given in April 1936.

[edit] The Spanish Civil War and Lorca's death

García Lorca left Madrid for Granada only three days before the Spanish Civil War broke out (July 1936). The Spanish political and social climate had greatly intensified after the murder of prominent monarchist and anti-Popular Front spokesman José Calvo Sotelo by Republican Assault Guards (Guardia de Asalto).<ref>Zhooee, TIME Magazine, 20 July 1936</ref>

On 18 August (a month after the military insurrection had broken out) his brother-in-law, Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, the leftist mayor of Granada, was shot. Lorca was arrested that same afternoon.<ref name="Gibson 1996 255">Gibson, Ian (1996) (in Spanish). El assasinato de García Lorca. Barcelona: Plaza & Janes. pp. 255. ISBN 9788466313148. </ref>

It is thought that García Lorca was shot and killed by Nationalist militia<ref>Graham, Helen. The Spanish Civil War. A very short introduction. Oxford University. 2006. Press.p.28</ref><ref>Beevor, Antony. The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Penguin Books. 2006. London. p.100</ref> on 19 August 1936.<ref>Preston, Paul. The Spanish Civil War. Reaction, Revolution & Revenge. Harper Perennial. London. 2006. pp.107-108</ref> The author Ian Gibson in his book The Assassination of García Lorca alleges that he was shot with three others (Joaquin Arcollas Cabezas, Francisco Galadi Mergal and Dioscoro Galindo Gonzalez) at a place known as the Fuente Grande, or Fountain of Tears in Arabic, which is on the road between Viznar and Alfacar.<ref>Gibson, Ian. The Assassination of Federico García Lorca. Penguin Books. London. 1983. p.164</ref>

[edit] Suspected motives

Significant controversy remains about the motives and details of Lorca's murder. Personal, non-political motives have also been suggested. García Lorca's biographer, Stainton, states that his killers made remarks about his sexual orientation, suggesting that it played a role in his death.<ref>Stainton, Lorca: A Dream of Life.</ref> Ian Gibson suggests that García Lorca's assassination was part of a campaign of mass killings intended to eliminate supporters of the Marxist Popular Front.<ref Name="Gibson 1996 255"/> However, Gibson proposes that rivalry between the anti-communist CEDA and the Falange was a major factor in Lorca's death. Former CEDA Parliamentary Deputy, Ramon Ruiz Alonso not only arrested García Lorca at the Rosales' home, but was also the one responsible for the original denunciation that led to the arrest warrant being issued.

It has been argued that García Lorca was apolitical and had many friends in both Republican and Nationalist camps. Gibson disputes this in his 1978 book about the poet's death.<ref name="Gibson 1996 255"/> He cites, for example, Mundo Obrero's published manifesto, which Lorca later signed, and alleges that Lorca was an active supporter of the Popular Front.<ref>Gibson, Ian (1996) (in Spanish). El assasinato de García Lorca. Barcelona: Plaza & Janes. pp. 52. ISBN 9788466313148. </ref> Lorca read this manifesto out at a banquet in honour of fellow poet Rafael Alberti on 9 February 1936.

Many anti-communists were sympathetic to Lorca or assisted him. In the days before his arrest he found shelter in the house of the artist and leading Falange member, Luis Ortiz Rosales. Indeed, evidence suggests that Rosales was very nearly shot as well for helping García Lorca by the Civil Governor Valdes.The Basque Communist poet Gabriel Celaya wrote in his memoirs that he once found García Lorca in the company of Falangist José Maria Aizpurua. Celaya further wrote that Lorca dined every Friday with Falangist founder and leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera.<ref> Arnaud Imatz, "La vraie mort de Garcia Lorca" 2009 40 NRH, 31–34, at p. 31-2, quoting from the Memoirs. </ref> On 11 March 1937 an article appeared in the Falangist press denouncing the murder and lionizing García Lorca; the article opened: "The finest poet of Imperial Spain has been assassinated."<ref>Luis Hurtado Alvarez, Unidad (11 March 1937)</ref> Jean-Louis Schonberg also put forward the 'homosexual jealousy' theory.<ref> "Frederico Garcia Lorca. L'homme – L'oeuvre" 1956 (Paris, Plon). </ref> The dossier on the murder, compiled at Franco's request, and referred to by Gibson and others has yet to surface.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Censorship

Francisco Franco's Falangist regime placed a general ban on García Lorca's work, which was not rescinded until 1953. That year, a (censored) Obras Completas (Complete works) was released. Following this, Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma and La casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba) were successfully played on the main Spanish stages. Obras Completas did not include his late heavily homoerotic Sonnets of Dark Love, written in November 1935 and shared only with close friends. They were lost until 1983/4 when they were finally published in draft form (no final manuscripts have ever been found.) It was only after Franco's death that García Lorca's life and death could be openly discussed in Spain. This was due not only to political censorship, but also to the reluctance of the García Lorca family to allow publication of unfinished poems and plays prior to the publication of a critical edition of his works.

South African Roman Catholic poet Roy Campbell, who enthusiastically supported the Nationalists both during and after the Civil War, later produced acclaimed translations of Lorca's work. In his poem, The Martyrdom of F. Garcia Lorca, Campbell wrote,

Not only did he lose his life

By shots assassinated:

But with a hammer and a knife

Was after that -- translated.<ref>Roy Campbell, Selected Poems, Henry Regnery Company, 1955. Page 283. "On the Martyrdom of F. Garcia Lorca."</ref>

[edit] Excavation at Alfácar

In late October 2009, a team of archaeologists and historians from the University of Granada began excavations outside Alfácar.<ref>"Time" article 2009 "Exhuming Lorca's remains and Franco's ghosts"</ref> The site was identified three decades ago by a man who claimed to have helped dig Lorca's grave.<ref>Gibson p 467–8</ref><ref>Guardian article "Spanish archeologists fail to find Federico García Lorca's grave"</ref> Lorca was thought to be buried with at least three other men beside a winding mountain road that connects the villages of Viznar and Alfácar.<ref>"Lorca's Granada" p.113–123</ref>

There is a growing desire in Spain to come to terms with the civil war, which for decades was not openly discussed.<ref>Democratic Development and Reckoning with the Past: The Case of Spain in Comparative Context, article by D. Crocker, University of Maryland</ref> The judge in the case, Baltasar Garzón, formally requested local government and churches to open their files on the thousands of people who disappeared during the Civil War and under the dictatorship of General Franco until 1975.<ref>The Independent, 17 October 2008</ref>

The excavations began at the request of another victim's family.<ref name = BBC/> Following a long-standing objection, the Lorca family also gave their permission.<ref name = BBC/> In October 2009 Francisco Espinola, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry of the Andalusian regional government, said that after years of pressure García Lorca's body would "be exhumed in a matter of weeks".<ref>Seattle Times article Oct 2009</ref> Lorca's relatives, who had initially opposed an exhumation, said they might provide a DNA sample in order to identify his remains.<ref name = BBC>BBC News article 28 October 2009</ref>

In late November 2009, after two weeks of excavating the site, organic material believed to be human bones was recovered. The remains were taken to the University of Granada for examination.<ref>"The Leader" Article "First bones found"</ref> But in mid December 2009, doubts were raised as to whether the poet's remains would be found.<ref>Reuters - "Doubts rise over Spanish poet Lorca's remains".</ref> The dig produced "not one bone, item of clothing or bullet shell", said Begoña Álvarez, justice minister of Andalucia. She added, "the soil was only 40cm (16in) deep, making it too shallow for a grave".<ref>BBC news article "Spanish dig fails to find grave of poet Lorca"</ref><ref>Guardian article Dec 18 09 - "No remains found"</ref>

[edit] Memorials

García Lorca is honored by a statue prominently located in Madrid's Plaza de Santa Ana. Political philosopher David Crocker reports that "the statue, at least, is still an emblem of the contested past: "each day, the Left puts a red kerchief on the neck of the statue, and someone from the Right comes later to take it off."<ref>Democratic Development and Reckoning with the Past: The Case of Spain in Comparative Context, article by D. Crocker, University of Maryland [1]</ref>

The Lorca Foundation, directed by Lorca's niece Laura García Lorca, sponsors the celebration and dissemination of the writer's work and is currently building the Lorca Centre in Madrid. The Lorca family gave all Lorca's documentation to the foundation which holds it on their behalf.<ref>The Lorca Foundation</ref>

The García Lorca family summer home at Huerta de San Vicente was opened to the public in 1995 as a museum. The grounds, including nearly two hectares of land, the two adjoining houses, artworks and the original furnishings have been preserved.<ref>http://www.huertadesanvicente.com</ref>

[edit] List of major works

[edit] Poetry collections

• Impresiones y paisajes (Impressions and Landscapes 1918)
• Libro de poemas (Book of Poems 1921)
• Poema del cante jondo (Poem of Deep Song; written in 1921 but not published until 1931)
• Suites (written between 1920 and 1923, published posthumously in 1983)
• Canciones (Songs written between 1921 and 1924, published in 1927)
• Romancero gitano (Gypsy Ballads 1928)
• Odes (written 1928)
• Poeta en Nueva York (written 1930 - published posthumously in 1940, first translation into English as The Poet in New York 1940)<ref>Encyclopedia of literary translation into English</ref>
• Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías 1935)
• Seis poemas gallegos (Six Galician poems 1935)
• Sonetos del amor oscuro (Sonnets of Dark Love 1936, not published until 1983)
• Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and Other Poems (1937)
• Primeras canciones (First Songs 1936)
• The Tamarit Divan (poems written 1931-4 and not published until after his death in a special edition of Revista Hispanica Moderna in 1940).
• Selected Poems (1941)

[edit] Select translations

• Poem of the Deep Song - Poema del Canto Jondo, translated by Carlos Bauer (includes original Spanish verses). City Lights Books, 1987 ISBN 0-87286-205-4
• Poem of the Deep Song, translated by Ralph Angel. Sarabande Books, 2006 ISBN 1-932511-40-7
• Gypsy Ballads: A Version of the Romancero Gitano of Frederico García Lorca Translated by Michael Hartnett. Goldsmith Press 1973

[edit] Plays

• Christ: A Religious Tragedy (unfinished 1917)
• El maleficio de la mariposa (The Butterfly's Evil Spell: written 1919–20, first production 1920)
• Los títeres de Cachiporra (The Billy-Club Puppets: written 1922-5, first production 1937)
• Retablillo de Don Cristóbal (The Puppet Play of Don Cristóbal: written 1923, first production 1935)
• Mariana Pineda (written 1923–25, first production 1927)
• La zapatera prodigiosa (The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife: written 1926–30, first production 1930, revised 1933)
• Amor de Don Perlimplín con Belisa en su jardín (Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in his Garden: written 1928, first production 1933)
• El público (The Public: written 1929–30, first production 1972)
• Así que pasen cinco años (When Five Years Pass: written 1931, first production 1945)
• Bodas de sangre (Blood Wedding: written 1932, first production 1933)
• Yerma (written 1934, first production 1934)
• Doña Rosita la soltera (Doña Rosita the Spinster: written 1935, first production 1935)
• Comedia sin título (Play Without a Title: written 1936, first production 1986)
• La casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba: written 1936, first production 1945)
• Los sueños de mi prima Aurelia (Dreams of my Cousin Aurelia: unfinished 1938)

[edit] Short plays

• El paseo de Buster Keaton (Buster Keaton goes for a stroll 1928)
• La doncella, el marinero y el estudiante (The Maiden, the Sailor and the Student 1928)
• Quimera (Dream 1928)

[edit] Filmscripts

• Viaje a la luna (Trip to the Moon 1929)

[edit] Operas

• Lola, la Comedianta (Lola, the Actress, unfinished collaboration with Manuel de Falla 1923)

[edit] Drawings and paintings

• Salvador Dalí, 1925. 160x140mm. Ink and colored pencil on paper. Private collection, Barcelona, Spain
• Bust of a Dead Man, 1932. Ink and colored pencil on paper. Dimension and location unknown.

[edit] List of works based on Lorca

[edit] Criticism

• Mayhew, Jonathan. (2009). Apocryphal Lorca: Translation, Parody, Kitsch. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226512037. 

[edit] Poetry based on Lorca

• Greek poet Nikos Kavvadias's poem Federico García Lorca, in Kavvadias' Marabu collection, is dedicated to the memory of García Lorca and juxtaposes his death with war crimes in the village of Distomo, Greece, and in Kessariani in Athens, where the Nazis executed over two hundred people in each city.
• Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti also wrote a poem about García Lorca in 1937 entitled Federico García Lorca.<ref>Radnóti Miklós: Erõletett Menet (Válogatott Versek) at the National Széchényi Library</ref>
• The New York based Spanish language poet Giannina Braschi published El imperio de los sueños, a poetic homage to Poet in New York (1st edition: Anthropos editorial del hombre, 1988; 2nd edition: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico).
• Bob Kaufman and Gary Mex Glazner have both written tribute poems entitled Lorca.
• Harold Norse has a poem, We Bumped Off Your Friend the Poet, inspired by a review of Ian Gibson's Death of Lorca. The poem first appeared in Hotel Nirvana,<ref>Hotel Nirvana, San Francisco, City Lights (1974) ISBN 0-87286-078-7</ref> and more recently in In the Hub of the Fiery Force, Collected Poems of Harold Norse 1934–2003<ref>In the Hub of the Fiery Force, Collected Poems of Harold Norse 1934–2003, New York: Thunder's Mouth Press (2003) ISBN 1-56025-520-X</ref>
• The Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote the poem El Crimen Fue en Granada, in reference to García Lorca's death.
• The Turkish poet Turgut Uyar wrote the poem Three Poems For Federico García Lorca including a line in Spanish:obra completas
• The Irish poet Michael Hartnett published an English translation of García Lorca's poetry. García Lorca is also a recurring character in much of Hartnett's poetry, most notably in the poem A Farewell to English..
• Deep image, a poetic form coined by Jerome Rothenberg and Robert Kelly, is inspired by García Lorca's Deep Song.
• Vietnamese poet Thanh Thao wrote The guitar of Lorca and was set to music by Thanh Tung.
• A Canadian poet named John Mackenzie published several poems inspired by García Lorca in his collection Letters I Didn't Write, including one titled Lorca's Lament.
• In 1945, Greek poet Odysseas Elytis (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1979) translated and published part of García Lorca's Romancero Gitano.
• Pablo Neruda wrote Ode to Federico García Lorca (1935) and Eulogy For Federico García Lorca.
• Robert Creeley wrote a poem called "After Lorca" (1952)
• Jack Spicer wrote a book of poems called "After Lorca" (1957).
• The Russian poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko wrote the poem "When they murdered Lorca" ("Когда убили Лорку") in which he portrays Lorca as being akin to Don Quixote—an immortal symbol of one's devotion to his ideals and perpetual struggle for them.
• British poet John Siddique wrote "Desire for Sight (After Lorca)" included in Poems from a Northern Soul <ref>John Siddique</ref>

[edit] Musical works based on Lorca

• Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas composed Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (a 3 movement work for chamber orchestra) shortly after García Lorca's death, performing the work in Spain during 1937.<ref>Program Notes at the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra</ref>
• The Italian avant garde composer Luigi Nono wrote a composition in 1953 entitled Epitaffio per Federico García Lorca.
• The American composer George Crumb utilizes much of García Lorca's poetry in works such as his Ancient Voices of Children, his four books of Madrigals, and parts of his Makrokosmos.
• Composer Osvaldo Golijov and playwright David Henry Hwang wrote the one-act opera Ainadamar ("Fountain of Tears") about the death of García Lorca, recalled years later by his friend the actress Margarita Xirgu, who could not save him. It opened in 2003, with a revised version in 2005. A recording of the work released in 2006 on the Deutsche Grammophon label (Catalog #642902) won the 2007 Grammy awards for Best Classical Contemporary Composition and Best Opera Recording.
• Finnish modernist composer Einojuhani Rautavaara has composed Suite de Lorca ("Lorca-sarja") for a mixed choir to the lyrics of García Lorca's poems Canción de jinete, El grito, La luna asoma and Malagueña (1972).
• The Pogues dramatically retell the story of his murder in the song 'Lorca's Novena' on their Hell's Ditch album.
• Reginald Smith Brindle composed the guitar piece Four Poems of Garcia Lorca (1975) and El Polifemo de Oro (for guitar, 1982) based on two Lorca poems Adivinanza de la Guitarra and Las Seis Cuerdas <ref>Video - El Polifemo de Oro (for guitar, 1982) by Brindle</ref>
• Composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the first two movements of his 14th Symphony based around García Lorca poems.
• The French composer Maurice Ohana set to music García Lorca's poem Lament for the death of a Bullfighter (Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías) recorded by the conductor Ataúlfo Argenta in the 1950s
• Spanish rock band Marea made a rock version of the poem Romance de la Guardia Civil española, named "Ciudad de los Gitanos".
• In 1968, Joan Baez sang translated renditions of García Lorca's poems, "Gacela Of The Dark Death" and "Casida of the Lament" on her spoken-word poetry album, Baptism.
• In 1986, Leonard Cohen's English translation of the poem "Pequeño vals vienés" by García Lorca reached #1 in the Spanish single charts (as "Take This Waltz", music by Cohen). Cohen has described García Lorca as being his idol in his youth, and named his daughter Lorca Cohen for that reason.<ref>de Lisle, T. (n.d.) Article -Hallelujah: 70 things about Leonard Cohen at 70</ref>
• Missa Lorca by Italian composer Corrado Margutti (2008) is a choral setting of the Latin Mass text and the poetry of Lorca. U.S. premiere, 2010.
• In 1967, composer Mikis Theodorakis set to music seven poems of the Romancero Gitano – translated into Greek by Odysseas Elitis in 1945. Given the same title, the work was premiered in Rome in 1970. In 1981, under commission of the Komische Oper in Berlin, the composition was orchestrated as a symphonic work entitled Lorca. In the mid 1990s, Theodorakis rearranged the work as an instrumental piece for guitar and symphony orchestra.<ref>Composition review Article by Andreas Brandes 11 Aug 2004</ref><ref>Gail Holst composition review article</ref><ref>Detail on Theodorakis' works</ref>
• In 1989, American composer Stephen Edward Dick created new music for Lorca's ballad Romance Sonambulo, based on the original text, and with permission from Lorca's Estate. The piece is set for solo guitar, baritone and flamenco dance, and was performed in 1990 at the New Performance Gallery in San Francisco. The second performance took place in Canoga Park, Los Angeles in 2004.
• American composer Geoffrey Gordon composed Lorca Musica per cello solo (2000), utilizing themes from his 1995 three act ballet, The House of Bernarda Alba (1995), for American cellist Elizabeth Morrow. [2] The work was recorded on Morrow's Soliloquy CD on the Centaur label and was featured at the 2000 World Cello Congress. Three suites from the ballet, for chamber orchestra, have also been extracted from the ballet score by the composer.
• The Spanish guitarist José María Gallardo del Rey composed his 'Lorca Suite' in 2003 as a tribute to the great poet. Taking Lorca's folksong compilations 'Canciones Españolas Antiguas' as his starting point, Gallardo del Rey adds the colour and passion of his native Andalucia, incorporating new harmonisations and freely composed link passages that fuse classical and flamenco techniques.
• Catalán composer Joan Amargós wrote Homenatje a Lorca for alto saxophone in piano. Its three movements are based on three Lorca poems: Los cuatro muleros, Zorongo, and Anda jaleo.
• Composer Brent Parker wrote Lorca's Last Walk for piano solo. This was on the Grade 7 syllabus of the Royal Irish Academy of Music's piano exams, 2003-2008.

[edit] Theatre, film and television based on Lorca

• Playwright Nilo Cruz wrote the surrealistic drama Lorca in a Green Dress about the life, death, and imagined afterlife of García Lorca. The play was first performed in 2003 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The Cruz play Beauty of the Father (2010) also features Lorca's ghost as a key character.<ref>Washington Post article on Beauty of the Father February 5, 2010 accessed 2010-02-26</ref>
• British playwright Peter Straughan wrote a play (later adapted as a radio play) based on García Lorca's life, The Ghost of Federico Garcia Lorca Which Can Also Be Used as a Table.
• TVE broadcast a six hour mini-series based on key episodes on García Lorca's life in 1987. British actor Nickolas Grace played the poet, although he was dubbed by a Spanish actor.
• There is a 1997 film called The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, also known as Death in Granada, based on a biography by Ian Gibson. The film earned an Imagen Award for best film.
• Miguel Hermoso's La Luz Prodigiosa (The End of a Mystery) is a Spanish film based on Fernando Macías' novel with the same name, which examines what might have happened if García Lorca had survived his execution at the outset of the Spanish Civil War.
• British Screenwriter Philippa Goslett was inspired by García Lorca's close friendship with Salvador Dalí. The resulting biopic Little Ashes (2009) depicts the relationship in the 1920s and 1930s between García Lorca, Dalí, and Luis Buñuel.<ref>Ian Gibson, La represión nacionalista de Granada en 1936 y la muerte de Federico García Lorca (1971), Guía de la Granada de Federico García Lorca (1989), Vida, pasión y muerte de Federico García Lorca (1998), Lorca-Dalí, el amor que no pudo ser (1999).</ref>
• Bodas De Sangre (Blood Wedding) is the first part of a ballet / flamenco film trilogy directed by Carlos Saura and starring Antonio Gades and Cristina Hoyos (1981).

[edit] References

<references/>

[edit] Sources

• Gibson, Ian (1989). Federico García Lorca. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571142249. OCLC 21600658. 
• Stainton, Leslie (1999). Lorca: A Dream of Life. London: Farrar Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0374190976. OCLC 246338520. 
• Doggart, Sebastian & Michael Thompson (eds) (1999). Fire, Blood and the Alphabet: One Hundred Years of Lorca. Durham: University of Durham. ISBN 0907310443. OCLC 43821099. 
• Hernandez, Mario Translated by Maurer, Christopher (1991). Line of Light and Shadow: The Drawings of Federico García Lorca. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-1122-4. 

[edit] See also

• Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century, a list which includes Gypsy Ballads

[edit] External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Federico García Lorca

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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Federico García Lorca

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• The Lorca Foundation
• Huerta De San Vicente, Grandada - The Lorca Family home now a museum
• Lorca censored to hide sexuality - article by The Independent, 14 March 2009
• LGB biog of García Lorca
• Poet Graves web for Lorca's epitaph
• Lorca and Censorship: The Gay Artist Made Heterosexual - essay by Eisenberg, D; FSU

[edit] In Spanish

• Lorca's complete works in Spanish
• Audiobook poetry from Classici Stranieri - Diván del Tamarit

Persondata
Name	Garcia Lorca, Federico
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	5 June 1898
Place of birth	Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, Spain
Date of death	19 August 1936
Place of death	Near Alfacar, Granada, Spain

ar:فيديريكو غارسيا لوركا

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