Cuban Musical Theatre - Cuban Theatre in The Early 19th Century

Cuban Theatre in The Early 19th Century

In 1810, says Alejo Carpentier, a Spanish company arrived in Havana that would perform for more than 22 years. This company had artists of serious merit. The troupe included Andrés Prieto (a famous actor), Manuel García (who played the villain), the singer María del Rosario Sabatini, Antonio Hermosilla and others. After a few months it was reinforced by more Spanish talent: Mariana Galino, Isabel Gamborino (the famous tonadilla singer), and her sister the ballerina Manuela Gamborino, whom Carpentier describes as "an agile and luscious bombshell who had the men of Havana in a spell."

The life of some of these players was theatre itself: Marina Galino provoked her husband to jealousy, whereupon he stabbed her and left her for dead, finally slitting his own wrists. But the lady was not dead, and eventually recovered to give exhibitions of European dance styles, such as the bolero (Spanish style), minuets, gavots polkas, folías (Canary Islands), cachuchas (Andalusian solo song and dance), manchegas (from La Mancha), el pan de xarabe, el caballito jaleado and so on. Many of these were taught at Havana dance academies, but the contradanza and the waltz were the long-lasting favourites. Within twenty years of the contradanza arriving from abroad, it had begun to show signs of cubanization in its rhythm. This was the start of the fusion which eventually effected so much music and life generally in Cuba.

A Cuban actor, Francisco Covarrubias, was a prominent member of the troupe, and figured on its posters. He was a basso buffo, and an author of entremeses (one-act farces), zarzuelas and sainetes. As the vogue for Spanish-style theatre waned, Covarrubias led the way to genuinely Cuban theatrical formats.