Antonio García Gutiérrez and the Romantic Drama
Looking back at their initial experiences in Busseto, Verdi and Strepponi might have been a little better off if they had stayed in Paris , at least initially. The liberal-minded Parisians were more tolerant of their relationship, and indeed, of other things as well. The Spanish literary ex-patriots found refuge there during the repressive years following the return of King Ferdinando VII, who had been deposed by Napoleonic aggression in the first part of the century. This Paris-Madrid connection not only led to French tendencies in Spain's budding adaptation of the romantic drama, but perhaps Verdi's initial encounter with El trovador as well.
Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, is one of the first writers of note to return to Madrid following Fernando's death in 1834. The production of his play, Don Alvaro, which was begun in France , greatly inspired the next generation of writers, including Antonio García Gutiérrez. Born in 1813 (the same year as Verdi), the younger playwright was destined for law before he began his long walk to Madrid . There he found employ at various publishing houses and was soon translating works by Victor Hugo and Eugène Scribe into Spanish. The impact of these two French authors cannot be underestimated, and the Duke of Rivas was similarly familiar with these dramatists. Gutiérrez wrote his first play following their models and submitted it to the Teatro del Principe, where it lay dormant for some time. It was only after he had joined the army that the play was produced, where it was an unequivocal success. Granted a leave from duty, the author had to borrow an overcoat to cover his shabby uniform so that he could go onstage to accept the bravos of his excited audience.
It is easy to see why Verdi was so captivated by El trovador, as he already had been drawn to Hugo (Hernani/Ernani; Le roi s'amuse/Rigoletto) and Scribe (Les vêpres siciliennes; Un ballo in maschera) throughout his career. He would return again to Gutiérrez for his opera Simon Boccanegra and then to the Duke of Rivas's Don Alvaro for his Il forza del destino. Verdi's healthy interest in all things Spanish would conclude with his monumental Don Carlos. Though similar in scope and structure as the French, the 19 th -century Spanish Romantics had an especially darker edge [one need only consult the late ?black? paintings of Goya ( Saturn Devouring His Children c. 1821-23) and his early depiction of Napoleon's atrocities to get a visual sense of the prevailing mood.] Like their French counterparts, Spanish playwrights were attracted to the historical romantic drama, using past events for local color rather than retelling history with any real accuracy. Frustrated desire, subversive thought, the natural order in disarray ? all figure into their strongly fatalistic dramas. Like Manrique, the romantic hero is isolated, always looking at humanity from the other side of the chasm, and doomed to die an unnatural death. Gory graphic details might be included heighten the suffering, though, strangely enough, in the case of Il trovador, the burning, the fighting and the beheading all take place offstage, left to our imagination. Only Leonora meets her death onstage, by way of poison in a bloodless death.
A huge triumph in the history of Spanish literature, El trovador would also be Gutiérrez's most popular work. A series of subsequent misses peaked with the mildly successful Simón Bocanegra in 1843. Somewhat frustrated, the playwright traveled to Cuba , then took a government posting in England . When back in Spain , he turned to writing zarzuela (a sort of cousin to French opera comique ), his first, La espada de Bernardo, in 1853, thus completing his circle in the operatic canon.
