The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden (play)

"The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden" ("Amor de Don Perlimplín con Belisa en su jardín") is a play by the twentieth-century Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1928 and first performed in 1933.

The play tells the story of an elderly bachelor, Don Perlimplín, who is persuaded by his servant Marcolfa that he should marry on the grounds that she is getting too old and won't always be there to look after him. Don Perlimplín expresses doubts but is persuaded to marry the far younger and clearly very unsuitable Belisa. Belisa agrees to the match because her avaricious mother persuades her that Don Perlimplín's money will make her more attractive to other men. On their wedding night two duendes appear and draw a veil over the scene explaining that some things should be left unseen. The next morning it seems that Don Perlimplín has been cuckolded by five different men who entered through five different windows of the bedchamber. His reaction is odd as he doesn't behave jealously but declares instead that he has discovered the true meaning of love. Belisa begins to receive graphic love letters from a mysterious man in a red cape with whom she falls in love and whom she agrees to meet in the garden of Don Perlimpín's house. She goes there at the appointed time but is met instead by Don Perlimplín who reveals himself as the man in the red cloak and announces that he has taught Belisa the meaning of love, and then commits suicide.

In actuality, by committing suicide, Don Perlimpin is making Belisa's love for the stranger in the cloak eternal. Only by killing himself as an ideal lover can he capture Belisa's effusive yet passionate love.

Composer Michael Jeffrey Shapiro has written a one-act opera based on this play which first premiered in Washington, D.C.