Vienna Before Madrid? Rethinking the Origins of the seguidillas boleras Through Martín y Soler’s “Una cosa rara”

Abstract

This article reconsiders the origins and early dissemination of the seguidillas boleras by examining their possible presence in Vicente Martín y Soler’s Una cosa rara (Vienna, 1786). Although often understood as stereotyped musical markers of “Spanishness” in late eighteenth-century European opera, the seguidillas included in Martín y Soler’s works have not been systematically evaluated in relation to contemporary Spanish practices. A key piece of evidence – a 1790 Diario de Madrid review referring to the seguidillas boleras sung in La cosa rara during its Madrid performances – suggests that local audiences identified in this Viennese finale a fashionable genre that had only recently gained prominence on the city’s stages.

Through a historical and analytical reassessment of the earliest documented seguidillas boleras in Madrid’s theatre repertoire, this study explores how this new variant emerged within commercial and aesthetic dynamics of the 1780s, shaped by short theatrical forms, dance innovation, and evolving notions of national identity. By contextualizing Martín y Soler’s final years in Spain and his direct exposure to these practices before departing in 1777, the article investigates whether he could have incorporated early bolera features into Una cosa rara – and whether such features might have circulated in Vienna prior to their consolidation in Madrid. Ultimately, this work offers a preliminary but significant contribution to understanding the transnational construction of Spanish musical identity at the end of the eighteenth century.