Is it fair for Shakespeare to overshadow Cervantes?
Miguel de Cervantes and William
Shakespeare died days apart, 400 years ago, each of them a giant in his
own language and literary tradition. But a difference in the scale of
quatercentenary celebrations in their respective countries and around
the world is leading some fans of the author of Don Quixote to cry foul.
While
"all the world's a stage" for the British bard thanks to the rollout of
the massive Shakespeare Lives programme of arts events around the
globe, celebrations of the life of his Spanish contemporary are perhaps
"more honoured in the breach than the observance".
Shakespeare
Lives aims to reach half a billion people worldwide - the first
screenings of The Complete Walk, 37 short films to represent the
complete body of the bard's stage plays, took place at the weekend. The
Spanish government's action plan for Cervantes, on the other hand, seems
far less ambitious... and leans heavily on exhibitions and conferences
in big city museums and libraries.
This has provoked some rather unchivalrous comments from bigwigs in the field of Spanish culture.
"We've
had 400 years to prepare for this," said Dario Villanueva, director of
the Spanish Royal Academy, shortly after a letter from UK Prime Minister
David Cameron introducing Shakespeare Lives was published in major
newspapers around the world.
"There are a few events lined up but the figure of Cervantes deserves a major gesture on the part of our top institutions."
The
Spanish Culture Ministry has admitted that the programme remains a
"work in progress" and that some events will not emerge from the
pipeline until 2017.
Cervantes v Shakespeare
- The Cervantes Institute says that Don Quixote has been translated into 140 languages. The British Council says that Shakespeare works have been translated into more than 100 languages
- Shakespeare plays have formed the basis of more than 1,000 film scripts. About 50 feature-film versions of Don Quixote have been made in various languages
- Critically acclaimed film adaptations of Shakespeare's works include Kenneth Branagh's and Laurence Olivier's versions of Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet directed by Baz Luhrmann
- Internationally successful film adaptations of Cervantes' Don Quixote have been rare - Orson Welles and Terry Gilliam both failed to complete film shoots of their quixotic projects
- Man of La Mancha (Don Quixote) and West Side Story (Romeo and Juliet) are the best-known musicals inspired by the two writers' works
But Spanish novelist and
commentator Andres Trapiello, argues that the difference in the
commemorations has a lot to do with the authors themselves, and how the
public relates to them.
"Sure,
the state could have done more to promote the Cervantes event, but the
fact is that Shakespeare is a much more popular writer," he says.
"His works last two or three hours in the theatre and
have been made into God knows how many films. Cervantes wrote a number
of works but above all Don Quixote, a 1,100-page work which you need to
read with thousands of footnotes."
Trapiello describes the
difficulty of reading the early 17th Century classic - often described
as Europe's first modern novel - as a kind of albatross hanging around
the neck of contemporary Spaniards, many of whom have come to associate
the name of Cervantes with a negative cultural experience.
"Everyone
says they appreciate the importance of Don Quixote but there is this
national frustration that they cannot read it. People get a complex
about it," he says.
"Every couple of years they sit down and say I
am going to do it this time, but they get as far as the windmill story
on about page 50 and give up."
This story sees Don Quixote, a
minor nobleman who imagines himself a knight errant, mistake windmills
for hulking giants and charge them on his pathetic horse, Rocinante -
it's the origin of the English phrase "tilting at windmills".
The
fact that Trapiello's translation of the book into modern Spanish sold
30,000 copies in its first year in print may indicate how much Spaniards
long to get to grips with the book, and how difficult they find the
original.
Meanwhile, English-language films of Shakespeare's works have done a lot to popularise the bard in Spain.
Jose Rivas, a 25-year-old IT engineer from Madrid,
says the first thing that comes into his mind when he thinks of
Shakespeare is "Kenneth Branagh". He reels off a list of plays he knows
from the cinema, from Henry V to Much Ado About Nothing.
By
contrast, he has never read Cervantes, and was unaware this was a
special anniversary year for the giant of Spanish letters.
"I
get the feeling that Shakespeare is truly admired in Britain, while
Cervantes is almost being ignored here," says Lupe Estevez, a children's
author.
When she read Don Quixote as a schoolgirl she was surprised to discover how funny the book was.
"I
couldn't believe something like that could have been written in that
era. But the way we treat Cervantes is so solemn and old-fashioned, in
the TV and film versions there have been, for example. This generation
has got it wrong in that sense. I hope to see a new approach for our
children to enjoy."
Don Quixote in 100 words
An
elderly fan of chivalric literature, Alonso Quijano, decides to become a
knight-errant and sets off in search of adventure on his aged mount,
Rocinante. He thinks of himself as Don Quixote of La Mancha, imagines a
farm girl is his lady love, Dulcinea, and a villager, Sancho Panza, is
his squire. Panza's earthiness contrasts with Quixote's feverish
imagination, but he too is fooled into thinking he has become the
governor of an island. The novel's second part sees Quixote wrestling
with the fact that he is now a famous literary character, thanks to the
success of the first book.
The
man tasked with making 2016 in Britain the year of Cervantes, and not
just Shakespeare, says much of the criticism is unfair.
"What is
the aim of an anniversary like this? It is more to promote the works and
reach the average citizens than to make a lot of noise," says Julio
Crespo, director of the London branch of the Cervantes Institute, the
Spanish equivalent of the British Council.
"You can spend a lot of money on celebrations that seem to be very impressive but don't really have a serious content."
He
is at pains to underline how much the writers have in common. It was
because both writers were traditionally thought to have died on 23 April
that this became World Book Day, he points out. Both have been
translated into more than 100 languages.
"They were different
writers using different forms but both contributed to elevate the level
of the language and culture to which they belonged in a similar way," he
says.
Trapiello, the Cervantes devotee, also declares himself to
be an enormous fan of Shakespeare, citing the poetic richness of the
English bard's verse.
"Hamlet is my favourite play, but even in
some of the weaker works, there are always amazing passages. For
example, I don't rate Romeo and Juliet especially highly, but the
leave-taking scene between the two lovers is of extraordinary quality,"
he says.
Ultimately, Trapiello feels that Shakespeare's obvious
dramatic qualities give his work a modern edge, which lends it more
easily to film adaptations.
"Quixote, on the other hand, is a
series of small anecdotes. It does not translate at all into the
language of cinema," he says. "All films about Quixote have tried to be
funny and they have all failed."
