Dr Ferrer Valls studies the relationship between court festivity and theatre in the sixteenth century, placing special emphasis on staging. She argues that throughout the reign of Philip II court spectacle perpetuates the complicated staging of traditional performances, but with greater emphasis on their dramtic aspects and on the use of music and song. In the first two decades of the seventeenth century, and above all in specific plays by Lope de Vega, court spectacles come to reflect also the influence of Italian staging techniques.