Chopin in the Spain of the Franco Regime: a view from the cinematographic art (1959-1975)

Abstract

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), unlike other composers, visited Spain during his lifetime and resided in Mallorca for two months between 1838 and 1839. Furthermore, he is the only composer who appears recreated in a film during the Franco’s dictatorship (1939-1975), Jutrzenka. Un invierno en Mallorca (Jaime Camino, 1969), based on the eponymous travel story by George Sand (1804-1876) and characterized by the tormented representation of the artist. In this work we propose a study on the way in which the musician is illustrated in the aforementioned film and on its place in the audiovisual reality in Spain during the desarrollismo era (1959-1975). Taking as core the primary –the film and the novel– and the secondary sources, we will verify what the Spain that Chopin arrived at was like from the sociocultural perspective, we will analyze the diegetic presence of music in the film and we will reflect on the portrait drawn in this production, in comparison with the myth created around his figure.