The 17th-Century Drama on the 19th-Century stages of Paris and Madrid From a transfer to a resembling embezzlement

The comedia constituted an essential domain that fuelled cultural transfers between the operatic stages in Madrid and Paris in the nineteenth century. Valued by the Spanish authors who see in it as part of a prestigious heritage, it also charmed French authors by the richness of its models. This transfer continued paradoxically into the new repertory of zarzuela, based on the model of French opéra-comique and developed in Spain into a national lyric scene.