Paravicino’s only known play, La Gridonia, is, like Gil Vicente’s Don Duardos, inspired by the Primaleón or Libro segundo del Palmerín (Salamanca, 1512). Paravicino’s ‘invention’, heir to the fantasy comedies and courtly entertainments of the 16th century, combines, like other ‘inventions’ of the time, pastoral, mythological and chivalric elements. However, in La Gridonia, the specificity of the costumes and the dreamlike universe are particularly important, along with the words.
The action, governed by the poetics of the marvellous, Neoplatonic philosophy and the religious pedagogy of the Baroque, takes place between Naples, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Constantinople and Ormedes, unleashing a dizzying change of scenery and scenes in which theatrical carpentry combines with poetry, painting and music, according to the standards of the emblematic.