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A baroque vision of the conquest of Tunis in 1535 487

play was not performed in Madrid for nearly seventy years, between
1717 and 1787, which is odd since the author was the chief theatre
censor in the capital until his death in 1750. This fact might indicate
that the play and/or its performance was programmed at a specific
political time that corresponded to the domination of Madrid by the
Archduke of Austria, and was regarded as such. It was performed
subsequently in a very different political context that saw no danger
or harm in it. There are other factors that might have influenced the
pattern of performances. The fact that it wasn’t performed at the Court
between 1717 and the death of Cañizares in 1750 might indicate that
the author didn’t much value the piece, or that it had been produced
in haste to meet specific political circumstances and the author
deliberately applied self-censorship once the situation changed . Nor
56
can we entirely dismiss the possibility that the success of the play in
1711, 1713 and 1717 was due in large part to its scenic effects and
not simply to its political topicality.
After these performances, we only have news of the play’s revival in
1786 (Teatro de Santa Cruz), 1787 (performed on the 7th, 8 and 9
th
th
of September at the Teatro del Príncipe), 1798 (from the 11 to the
th
16 of November at the Teatro de Santa Cruz) and 1792 (from the 4
th
th
to the 9 of January at the Teatro de Santa Cruz) . Clearly, the play
57
th
enjoyed a degree of success in the later years of the eighteenth century
in terms of number of performances. This is supported by the fact that
it was also performed several times in Barcelona between 1775 and
1777 – unfortunately we have no specific data relating to these . We
58
do know that it was put on again on the 30 of January 1784 , the
59
th
14 and 15 of November 1789 , and the 9 , 10 , 30 and 31 of
th
60
th
th
th
st
th
October 1790 . We can conclude that it was a successful play in
61
Barcelona at the time, particularly in October 1790 with four
performances, which was very unusual for the time. Its success there
may have something to do with the fact that it was published by a
printer from that city in 1790 at the request of a theatre company, as

56 It must be stressed again that Cañizares wrote very few plays of a historical
nature; the majority of his output dwelt on magic, saints and zarzuelas. J. Huerta, E.
Peral, H. Urzáiz, Teatro Español. De la A a la Z, Espasa, Madrid, 2005, p. 126. We have
already seen how this particular play includes some magical elements.
57 A.M. Coe, Catálogo cit., p. 38.
58 A. Par, Representaciones teatrales en Barcelona durante el siglo XVIII, «Boletín de
la Real Academia Española», 16 (1929), pp. 337, 339.
59 Specifically, by the Italian company consisting of Mariana and Teresa Tomba,
Francisco Antonucci, Ángel Vallí, Gasparo Angelini, Antonio Tossi, Josephe Gradotti,
Josephe Campana, Jaime Panti and Adriana Garioni. Ivi, p. 497.
60 Ivi, p. 597.
61 Ivi, p. 600.
Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)