Àngel Guimerà i Jorge (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈaɲʒəl ɣiməˈɾa j ˈxoɾxe]; 6 May 1845 or 6 May 1847 or 1849 – 18 July 1924), usually known simply as Àngel Guimerà, was a Catalan Spanish playwright and poet. His work is known for bringing together under romantic aspects the main elements of realism. He is considered one of the principal representatives of the Renaixença movement, at the end of the nineteenth century.
Life
He was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, to a Catalan father and a Canary Islander mother. At an early age, Guimerà's family moved to Catalonia, where they settled at his father's birthplace, El Vendrell.
Guimerà wrote a number of popular plays, which were translated into other languages and performed abroad, proving instrumental in the revival of Catalan language as a literary language (Renaixença) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By far, the most famous was his realistic drama Terra baixa (Lowlands, also translated as Martha of the Lowlands). Written in 1896, it quickly became an international sensation. The play was translated into 15 different languages and the Spanish translation was presented regularly for a period of thirty years by the theatre of Enric Borràs throughout Spain and Latin America. In English, the play received three Broadway productions between 1903 and 1936.
In addition to being a popular stage play, Terra baixa was made into six films, including a silent film in the United States, entitled "Martha of the Lowlands" (1914) and Leni Riefenstahl's Tiefland (1954). Furthermore, it served as the source material for two operas: Eugen d'Albert's German opera Tiefland (1903) and Fernand Le Borne's La Catalane (French).
