The project Women of Zarzuela is the result of a collaboration between cultural institutions, specialists in the history of Spanish lyric theatre, and the community of Wikipedia editors. Many important women in the history of Spanish lyric theatre did not have an entry on Wikipedia, and thanks to this collective effort, 18 articles were published: 10 new ones, 8 translations, as well as improvements to 8 existing entries with additional information, references, and relevant links.

 

Main photo: Gemma Escribano

 

Isamay Benavente (Director of the Teatro de la Zarzuela), Patricia Horrillo (founder of Wikiesfera) and Mª Luz González Peña (Director of the Documentation and Archive Centre – CEDOA – of the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers) presented Women of Zarzuela in the ambigú of the theatre in the Plazuela de Teresa Berganza. The project seeks to make women in Spanish lyric theatre more visible on Wikipedia.

 

 

In July 2024, the educational and cultural activities team at the Teatro de la Zarzuela (INAEM, National Institute of Performing Arts and Music, Ministry of Culture) contacted Wikiesfera with a specific concern: many significant women in the history of Spanish lyric theatre did not have an entry on Wikipedia, despite the fact that the theatre’s archives preserved abundant documentation about them.

 

 

Wikiesfera considered this proposal to be fully aligned with their mission to reduce the gender gap in the free encyclopaedia. For them, it was essential to connect this institutional knowledge with the editing community, creating a space of collective learning with a real impact on access to knowledge.

 

 

At the presentation, sopranos Soledad Vidal and Sofía Gutiérrez Tobar, accompanied by répétiteur pianist Lilliam Castillo from the Teatro de la Zarzuela, performed two excerpts from Diana cazadora by María Rodrigo.

 

Project design

 

Women of Zarzuela was conceived as a collaboration between cultural institutions, experts in the history of Spanish lyric theatre, and the Wikipedia editing community. The first step was to identify the women whose artistic careers should be highlighted, drawing on the expertise of a “Council of Wise Women” coordinated by the Teatro de la Zarzuela. This mapping and curatorial work defined a set of priority biographies that were either absent from the free encyclopaedia or contained very little information.

 

In parallel, training was offered to people interested in the subject so that they could create, translate or improve these articles. Through its links with music degree programmes at several universities, the Teatro de la Zarzuela proposed offering this training to students and researchers. This led to collaboration with six universities: University of Alcalá (UAH), Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), University of Granada (UGR), University of Oviedo (UO) and University of Salamanca (USAL), whose departments enabled the participation of students in music research, musicology and digital humanities.

 

The training process consisted of four online sessions covering the essentials of editing Wikipedia with a gender perspective, the use of reliable sources, content translation and the correct structuring of an encyclopaedic article. The process culminated in a virtual edit-a-thon in May 2025, in which participants applied what they had learned by creating, translating and improving entries on women of zarzuela, thus contributing to expanding open and free access to knowledge about Spanish lyric theatre.

 

Images

 

One of the major challenges in raising the visibility of women on Wikipedia concerns images: of the 25% of biographies that are about women, only 20% include a photo, which limits their impact and visibility. There is often a misconception that if images are available online, they can be freely used, overlooking copyright restrictions.

 

 

In the case of Women of Zarzuela, the women featured are historical figures, making access to copyright-free images even more complex. Although many cultural institutions hold valuable photographic archives, these are not always released under licences that allow their use in open knowledge projects such as Wikipedia.

 

For this reason, and aware of the importance of this issue, the Teatro de la Zarzuela undertook specific steps to address it. After a meeting with the team of the National Library of Spain (BNE), the institution released 15 images of women from Spanish lyric theatre, which have now been added to the corresponding Wikipedia articles, significantly improving their visibility. The National Museum of Performing Arts in Almagro also joined the initiative, releasing 7 images that are now part of the published Wikipedia entries resulting from the project (two of them, of Felisa Herrero, illustrate this article).

 

 

These institutional contributions represent an important step towards visually enriching the free encyclopaedia, ensuring that the biographies of these women are not only supported by reliable and verifiable sources but also represented by a face. The collaboration of public archives and museums with projects like this highlights the value of opening up documentary heritage to foster fairer and more diverse representation in digital knowledge spaces.

 

Articles created: 10

 

• Adelaida Latorre (19th century)
• Natividad de Rojas y Ortiz de Zárate (19th century)
• Luisa Fons Ruíz (1867–1925)
• Lucía Pastor Ramos (1868–1960)
• Remedios Selva y Torre (1877–?)
• Carmen López Peña (1885–1941)
• Felisa Herrero López (1905–1962)
• Enriqueta Serrano Arenas (1911–1958)
• Maruja Vallojera (1918–21st century)
• Pepita Rollán (1920–1994)

 

Articles translated into Spanish: 8

 

• Luisa Santamaría Moreno (1827–1883)
• Teresa Istúriz y Coca (1830–1874)
• Adelaida Montañés Soriano (1839–1898)
• Josefa Murillo y Bravo de Vela (1840–?)
• Mercedes Ubach Solà (1869–1935)
• Cándida Pérez Martínez (1893–1989)
• Carmen Tur Melchor (1899–1943)
• Cecilia A. Mantua (1905–1974)

 

Articles improved: 8

 

• Trinidad Ramos (c.1835–1863)
• Isabel Brú (1874–1931)
• Luisa Vela Lafuente (1884–1938)
• María Rodrigo (1888–1967)
• Lola Palatín (1888–1971)
• Adela Anaya Ruiz (1890–1970)
• Conchita Panadés Juanengo (1908–1981)
• Dolores Marco Seseras (1935–2005)