The classics in their essential verses

“The Classics in Their Essential Verses: From El caballero de Olmedo to El alcalde de Zalamea” compiles the scripts used in the recitals held to close the Olmedo Classical Theater Festival from 2021 to 2015. The cycle comprises the five plays considered fundamental to Spanish Golden Age theater: El caballero de Olmedo, La vida es sueño, El castigo sin venganza, Fuente Ovejuna  and El alcalde de Zalamea.

The primary objective is to facilitate access to and understanding of this essential chapter of Spanish cultural heritage for all types of interested readers and audiences, but especially for students at all educational levels. The book aims to be a guide to assist teachers in this task.

Each of the five selected texts includes an introduction that explains its meaning, with notes that connect them to contemporary relevance. The narrator, while recounting the action, introduces the most significant monologues and dialogues.

As a complement, for its possible use in classrooms or by amateur groups, each work includes the corresponding QR code that gives access to the recordings that were made of the recitals in Olmedo, in which up to seventeen actors and actresses, leading figures in the field of performance, participated.