- La recepción del teatro clásico español en Europa (siglos XVII-XVIII)
- A cura di Fausta Antonucci, Salomé Vuelta García
Lope de Vega’s La hermosa Ester: a heroine on the Dutch stage
- Frans Blom
- Olga van Marion
- © 2026 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0857-4.25
Several recent studies on Amsterdam’s Grand City Theater (the Schouwburg, est. 1637) have focused on transnational adaptations of Spanish comedias in the Dutch repertory, analyzing ways of transfer, marketing, artistic translation and adaptation, popularity and impact on Dutch theatre life. Building on these new insights, this contribution centers on Lope de Vega’s biblical comedia of La hermosa Ester and its transfer from the Iberian tradition to the Dutch stage in Amsterdam, where the play premiered in 1659 as Hester. Bringing to life the story of the Jewish exile in Persia, the play stands out for its theme of deliverance and for its female heroism. The article’s arguments is that Lope’s play spoke to the people in the Jewish refugee community of Amsterdam just as much as to the Christian people in Dutch society. Moreover, the heroine protagonist was key to its popularity, exploiting the theatre’s recent innovation of female actors and, thus, appealing to a more diverse audience.
- Keywords:
- Transnational Theatre,
- Comedia adaptation,
- Amsterdam Grand Theatre (Schouwburg),
- Female Actors,
- Lope de Vega,
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands - ORCID: 0000-0002-2175-451X
Leiden University, Netherlands - ORCID: 0000-0001-5188-2822
- Blom, Frans R.E. 2020. “Enemy Treasures: The Making and Marketing of Spanish Comedia in the Amsterdam Schouwburg”. In Literary Hispanophilia and Hispanophobia in Britain and the Low Countries (1550-1850), ed. Yolanda Rodríguez Pérez, 115-44. Amsterdam: AUP.
- Blom, Frans R.E. 2021a. “Theatre on Tour: Amsterdam’s Schouwburg as a European Hub”. In The International World of Dutch Literature, eds. Jan Bloemendal, James Parente and Nigel Smith (special issue of Renaissance Studies. Journal of the Society for Renaissance Studies), 136-58.
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- Blom, Frans R.E. and Olga van Marion. 2017. “Lope de Vega and the Conquest of Spanish Theater in the Netherlands”. Anuario Lope de Vega, 23: 155-77.
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Informazioni sul capitolo
Titolo del capitolo
Lope de Vega’s La hermosa Ester: a heroine on the Dutch stage
Autori
Frans Blom, Olga van Marion
Lingua
Ukrainian
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0857-4.25
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Informazioni bibliografiche
Titolo del libro
La recepción del teatro clásico español en Europa (siglos XVII-XVIII)
Curatori
Fausta Antonucci, Salomé Vuelta García
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
300
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0857-4
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0856-7
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0857-4
Collana
Moderna/Comparata
ISSN della collana
2704-5641
e-ISSN della collana
2704-565X