Lifes a Dream

Pedro Calderon de la Barca

ISBN 10: 0871292955 / ISBN 13: 9780871292957

Published by Dramatic Pub Co, 1999

Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00048117446

Synopsis:

A beautiful and haunting tale of love, betrayal, knowledge, and power, Life's a Dream (La vida es sueno, 1636) is the best known and most widely admired play of Catholic Europe's greatest dramatist, Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681). Calderon's long life witnessed both the pinnacle and collapse of Spanish political power as well as the great flowering of Spanish classical literature. Michael Kidd's new prose translation renders Calderon's masterpiece into a transparent, modern American idiom that preserves the beauty and complexity of Calderon's Baroque Spanish. The result is a highly readable and adaptable text that is enhanced by a generous selection of supporting materials, including a thorough critical introduction and glossary.

Review: "This is a faithful, accurate, and eminently actable poetic prose translation of Calderon's masterpiece, which ingeniously resolves its many intricate linguistic and semantic puzzles."

snappy, playable though poetic prose translation by Michael Kidd (Carleton College) of Calderon's famous "La vida es sueno." That is arguably the best of the 500 plays that survive from this dramatist's alleged 2000 efforts. Moreover, the translatio

"A snappy, playable though poetic prose translation by Michael Kidd (Carleton College) of Calderon's famous La vida es sueno. That is arguably the best of the 500 plays that survive from this dramatist's alleged 2000 efforts. Moreover, the translation comes with excellent critical introduction, supporting materials, and a glossary. Life's a Dream . . . is the best choice for any university or other theater group that wants to stage this play. The fact that modern English prose cannot capture the florid fol-de-rol of early seventeenth-century Spanish is actually an advantage. The love story and the political implications emerge unscathed."
--Chronique, Biliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

"Kidd advances the work of two often-exclusive camps of comediantes: scholarship and performance. ...[C]oming to this text from a background of experience in both the study and performance of Golden Age drama, this reviewer is inclined to join in the applause. For any working theater director, Kidd's introduction alone is a dream come true. As La Vida es Sueno is one of the foundational texts of the period, this important new translation marks its identity as a founding contribution to that burgeoning community."
--Bulletin of Hispanic Studies

"This is a faithful, accurate, and eminently actable poetic prose translation of Calderon's masterpiece, which ingeniously resolves its many intricate linguistic and semantic puzzles."
--Jose Maria Ruano de la Haza, University of Ottawa

Bibliographic Details

Title: Lifes a Dream
Publisher: Dramatic Pub Co
Publication Date: 1999
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good