Cuplé
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The cuplé was a popular risqué Spanish theatre song style in the late years of the 19th century. From 1893 to 1911 the songs were a feature of the "género ínfimo" (lowest type)
drag, and attended mainly by men. But in the second decade of the 20th century the cuplé, in a more respectable form, became more family-friendly and was associated with the makings of stars of the Spanish theatre such as Aurora Jauffret, "La Goya",[1][2] and Lola Montes, who sang the cuplé El novio de la muerte, which, after adaptation, became the official hymn of the Spanish Legion.[3][4]
The term comes from French couplet, but the poetic form couplet in Spanish is a pareado or dístico. The cuplé prefigured the copla of the 1930s.
Notable cupletistas
- María Antinea (1915–1991), Spanish actress, vedette, dancer, cupletista and tonadillera
- La Argentinita (1898–1945), Spanish-Argentine flamenco dancer (bailaora), choreographer and singer
- Bella Dorita (1901–2001), Spanish cabaret singer, dancer, and vedette
- Paquita Escribano (1880–1970), Spanish singer (cupletista and tonadillera)
- Julia Fons (1882–1973), Spanish singer and cupletista
- La Fornarina (1884–1915), Cuplé singer
- Celia Gámez (1905–1992), Argentine film actress, icon of the Golden Age of Spanish theatre
- Úrsula López (1870–1966), Spanish Zarzuela, variety singer, and businesswoman
- Raquel Meller, Spanish diseuse, cuplé, and tonadilla singer and actress.
- Lola Montes (1898–1983), Spanish singer
- La Chelito (1885–1959), Cuban-born Spanish cuplé singer, and theater business owner
- Preciosilla (1893–1952), Spanish cupletista
- Olga Ramos (1918–2005), Spanish cupletista, violinist, and actress
- Rosita Rodrigo (1891–1959), Spanish actress, vedette, dancer and songwriter
- Teresita Zazá (1893–1980), Spanish tonadillera, cupletista, and actress
References
- ^ Eva Woods Peiró White Gypsies: Race and Stardom in Spanish Musicals Page 70 2012 "A bastardization of the French couplet, the cuplé was a popular narrative song of approximately two to three minutes that most often recounted stories of prostitutes, lost love, sexual escapades, or the trials of a poverty-stricken life. ...The cupletista was the female or male transvestite singer who usually performed cuplés in cafés, lyric theaters, and lowbrow theaters.5 According to Serge Salaün a cultural historian of the cuplé, the growing vogue for the cuplé in Spain developed alongside, within, and around the star system and, by extension, the cinema (El cuplé, 86, ..."
- ^ Bradley S. Epps, Despina Kakoudaki All about Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema 2009 "Even the cuplé, the song with which Montiel becomes identified, derives from a tradition of risqué musical numbers filled with sexual innuendo performed by women."
- ^ Villatoro, Manuel P. (19 March 2014). ""El novio de la muerte", el himno de la Legión española que nació en un cabaret". Diario ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 June 2023.
- ^ Retana, Álvaro (1964). Historia del género frívolo (in Spanish). Madrid: Tesoro.