223 Early Music, Vol. xl, No. 2 © he Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/em/cas046, available online at www.em.oxfordjournals.com Juan Pablo Fernández-Cortés ¿Qué quita a lo noble un airecito de maja? National and gender identities in the zarzuela Clementina (1786) by Luigi Boccherini and Ramón de la Cruz C lementina, the zarzuela (or ‘comedia con música’) in two acts with music by Luigi Boccherini and libretto by Ramón de la Cruz, was composed at the end of 1786 and premiered in Madrid on 3 January 1787 at the palace of the widow Countess-Duchess of Benavente. This work is a paradigmatic example of the hybridization found in Spanish music theatre at the end of the 18th cen- tury, and of the coexistence of apparently antitheti- cal musical styles and dramatic typologies in the Spanish tradition and of then-current European aesthetics of the time; it reflects a complex historical moment in which the first expressions of a Spanish national identity and new models of masculin- ity and femininity were being shaped. 1 The lack of attention to, and historiographic manipulation of, the 18th-century zarzuela until very recently has resulted in the absence of this genre from studies of national and gender identities. 2 The zarzuela, since its inception, integrated heterogeneous literary and musical elements, harmonizing characteristics of neoclassical theatre and European music theatre genres with an increasing preference for elements of Spanish popular culture, favoured by the progres- sive Hispanicization of the court after the accession to the throne of King Carlos III. 3 In what follows, I will present some examples of the manifestations and conflicts of national and gender identity emerg- ing from Clementina, and how they are expressed through certain musical and dramatic resources in a process of hybridization and coexistence between Spanish traits (both of popular and learned origin) and others of foreign origin, associated with what at that time was considered modern and the culture of the élite. 4 A cross-genre for Spanish high society Clementina was conceived in a privileged production context receptive to novelties of European culture: a salon of the high nobility. It was commissioned by María Faustina Téllez- Girón, widow Countess-Duchess of Benavente, from two professionals closely related to her cultural patronage: Spanish playwright Ramón de la Cruz (1731–94) and composer Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805). In March 1786, Boccherini had been appointed composer and music director of the instrumental ensemble of María Josefa Alonso Pimentel (daughter of María Faustina), who later, as Countess-Duchess of Benavente, would play a central role in Madrid’s Enlightenment society. 5 The heterogeneous character of Clementina can be appreciated immediately in the choice of authors for the project. De la Cruz’s theatrical production balances attraction to the renovated models of French and Italian theatre and fidelity to traits of national identity. 6 Luigi Boccherini, an Italian composer resident in Spain, practised a syncretism of diverse Italian styles and French sentimentality, while incorporating popular Spanish elements. 7 Directed by a woman of the high aristocracy, Clementina was presented in a tertulia (artistic social gathering) milieu, which constituted a privileged space of sociability and tolerance at CSIC on September 18, 2012 http://em.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from