A Nativity Play for the Catholic Monarchs

On Christmas Eve, 1487, in the church of San Salvador, Zaragoza, a Nativity play was performed before an audience that included Ferdinand and Isabella and their children. To date the play has aroused only scant interest, mainly because information about it is limited to a string of bookkeeping entries recorded in the church ledger. Yet these entries enable us to reconstruct a skeletal outline of the play, which can then be elaborated by appealing to other fifteenth-century Christmas celebrations. What emerges is a full-blown opera that goes beyond the traditional scene of Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child to include the shepherds, the prophets of antiquity and the hierarchy of angels who, by means of revolving wheels perform the mystic ring dance as God the Father looks on. Unlike Encina's plays, the Zaragoza piece re-creates the biblical moment as the contemporary, historical, and spiritual worlds render homage to the Son of God. Apparently the play is no amateur production but the creation of a seasoned director and an accomplished scriptwriter, both supported by professional actors and musicians. Its language may well have been Castilian; whereupon it emerges also as a fitting tribute to the Queen of Castile. (CS)