One of Calderón’s most accomplished comedies, the strength of this play is due to the wilful Doña Angela, whose clever manipulations of the men who seek to control her allows her to be as free as her imagination. She exploits a moving panel in the wall of her brothers’ house, creating a passage between her lover’s room and a private, fantastical ‘palace’ (in fact her own quarters) which she uses to convince her lover he has entered another world.
This is a play about the manipulations of a woman who refuses to remain invisible. In her position as a widow whose husband died in debt and disgrace, Angela is not allowed by her broth... (Read more...)
Critics differ on establishing a ‘source’ for La dama duende, but do notice its similarity with Lope de Vega’s play La viuda valenciana (ca. 1599), and perhaps also tie it to the secon... (Read more...)
The Spanish National Classical Theatre production was very well received, and a large selection of the press for CNTC’s 2000 production of this play is collected in Cuadernos de Teatro ... (Read more...)
Two film versions have been made of La dama duende.
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. 1636. Primera Parte de comedias de Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Madrid, María de Quiñones
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. 1954. La dama duende, ed. Angel V... (Read more...)
Critics such as Thacker have argued that we might see Angela’s manipulation of her social status as a social critique. She is a disgraced widow who is supposed to remain invisible to so... (Read more...)
Varey, John E. 1983. ‘La dama duende de Calderón: símbolos y escenografía’. In Actas del. Congreso International sobre Calderón y el Teatro Español del Siglo de Oro, Madrid (in Spanish)
Antonucci, Fausta. 1998. ‘Nuevos datos para la historia de la transmisión textual de La dama duende: las traducciones italianas del siglo XVII y comienzos del XVIII’. In Actas del IV Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro (A.I.S.O.) (Alcalá de Henares, 22-27 July 1996), vol. 1, pp. 173-84. Alcalá, Servicio de Publicaciones (in Spanish)
Antonucci, Fausta. 2000. ‘Contribución al estudio de la historia textual de La dama duende’, Criticón, 78, 109-36 (in Spanish)
Arellano, Ignacio. 2001. ‘La dama duende y sus notables casos’, Cuadernos de Teatro Clásico, 15 ,127-39 (in Spanish)
Armas, Frederick de. 1976. The Invisible Mistress: Aspects of Feminism and Fantasy in the Golden Age. Biblioteca Siglo de Oro. Charlottesville, Virginia
Cascardi, Anthony J. 2005. ‘La dama duende’. In The Limits of Illusion: A Critical Study of Calderón, pp. 24-36. Cambridge, University Press
González, Aurelio. 2006. ‘De la palabra a la escena en tres comedias de Calderón’. In La dramaturgia de Calderón: Técnicas y estructuras (Homenaje a Jesús Sepúlveda), eds. Ignacio Arellano and Enrica Cancelliere, pp. 229-48. Madrid, Iberoamericana (in Spanish)
Greer, Margaret Rich. 1994. ‘The (Self)Representation of Control in La dama duende’. In The Golden Age Comedia: Text, Theory, and Performance, eds. Charles Ganelin and Howard Mancing, pp. 87-106. West Lafayette, Purdue University Press
Heigl, Michaela. 2001. ‘Gender Struggle and Power Relations in La dama duende’. In Spanish Theatre: Studies in Honour of Victor F. Dixon, eds. Kenneth Adams, Ciaran Cosgrove and James Whiston, pp. 57-70. London, Tamesis
Larson, Catherine. 1991. ‘La dama duende and the Shifting Characterization of Calderón's Diabolical Angel’. In The Perception of Women in Spanish Theater of the Golden Age, eds. Anita K. Stoll and Dawn L. Smith, pp. 33-50. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, Bucknell University Press
Martino Crocetti, María. 1991. ‘La dama duende: Spatial and Hymeneal Dialectics’. In The Perception of Women in Spanish Theater of the Golden Age, eds. Anita K. Stoll and Dawn L. Smith, pp. 51-66. Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press
Mujica, Barbara. 1997. ‘From Comedia to Zarzuela: The Generic Transformation of Calderón’s La dama duende’, Indiana Journal of Hispanic Literatures, 10-11, 17-35
Nelson, Bradley J. 2002. ‘The Marriage of Art and Honor: Anamorphosis and Control in Calderón's La dama duende’, Bulletin of the Comediantes, 54, 2, 407-41
Ruano de la Haza, J. M. 1987. ‘The Staging of Calderón’s La vida es sueño and La dama duende’, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 64,1, 51-63
Thacker, Jonathan. 1997. ‘ “… Now You Don’t”: The Manipulation of the Visible in Calderón’s La dama duende’,Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies, 5, 111-21
Thacker, Jonathan. 2002. ‘A Strategy for Self-Expression: The Puppet-Mistress’. In Role-Play and the World as Stage in the Comedia, pp. 107-32. Liverpool, University Press
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Entry written by Kathleen Jeffs. Last updated on 4 October 2010.
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