Vienna before Madrid? Rethinking the Origins of the Seguidillas Boleras through Martín y Soler's Una Cosa Rara

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 identifi ed in this Viennese fi nale a fashionable genre that had only recently gained prominence on the city’s stages.