"The Troubadour," translated by Robert M. Fedorchek

Antonio García Gutiérrez: The Troubadour, translated by Robert M. Fedorchek, Introduction by David T. Gies. On March 1, 1836, a young Spanish soldier—he was four months shy of his twenty-third birthday—left his Leganés army barracks without permission to attend the premiere of his first play at Madrid’s Teatro del Príncipe. The Troubadour (El Trovador), the object of much advance publicity, proved to be a resounding success, so much so that the unknown playwright was raucously summoned to the stage to take a bow. Unprepared for such a reception and not dressed for the occasion, Antonio García Gutiérrez (1813-84) accepted a coat from Ventura de la Vega, a fellow playwright, in order to look more presentable to his admiring public. If the Duke of Rivas’s Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (which premiered on March 22, 1835, in the very same Teatro del Príncipe) was the opening breach, El Trovador was the definitive salvo that sealed the triumph of the Spanish Romantic theater. It contains a