In 2024, Ronald Puppo published the first full English translation of a poem in this language depicting the fall of Atlantis, which inspired one composer’s long-unfinished “scenic cantata.” For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this language used to write the Decameron-inspired novel The Garden of Seven Twilights. This language’s 19th-century Renaissance included the author of the play Martha of the Lowlands, the basis for an opera by Eugen d’Albert.
ANSWER: Catalan [or català; accept Valencian] (The poet is Jacint Verdaguer and the playwright is Àngel Guimerà. The Garden of Seven Twilights is by Miquel de Palol.)
[10e] Though he never completed Atlántida, Manuel de Falla’s breakthrough work was an opera titled for this noun. This is the first noun in the title of a Calderón de la Barca play in which Segismundo is locked in a tower.
ANSWER: life [or vida; accept The Brief Life or Life is Short or La vida breve or Life is a Dream or La vida es sueño]
[10m] Calderón’s play The Great Theater of the World, for which De Falla wrote incidental music, resembles a meta-theatrical play by this author that Richard Wilbur translated as The Theatre Of Illusion.
ANSWER: Pierre Corneille (The play is L'Illusion Comique.)
<S, European Literature>