Una extraña armonía (1956), a play at the threshold of Antonio Buero Vallejo's production

Abstract

In this study, it is analyzed Una extraña armonía (1956), a play by Antonio Buero Vallejo which has gone almost unnoticed by critics since its publication in 1994. Within a historical-literary framework marked by both economic and creative crisis, Una extraña armonía, on the one hand, stems from a particular creative process as it is a request by the actor Alberto Closas and, on the other, reformulates the playwright’s aesthetic concerns, referring mainly to his conception of tragedy, coming closet o Carlos Arniches and his idea of grotesque tragedy. From this conception, it is explored the place of the text in Buero’s production, considering its relationship wirh other titles like Historia de una escalera (1949) or El terror inmóvil (1949), sharing a love triangle with them, which, despite its innovative structure, does not overturn traditional gender roles, and the presentation of themes or resources explored in, for example, El concierto de San Ovidio (1962) or Misión al pueblo desierto (1999).