Rosario Guerrero

Rosario Fernández Guerrero (born about 1880 – died 1960s) was a Spanish dancer and pantomimist with an international career. Although she was not a singer, she is most often associated with the role of Carmen.

Rosario Guerrero
Friedrich August von Kaulbach, "Rosario Guerrero as Carmen" (circa 1908)
Friedrich August von Kaulbach, "Rosario Guerrero as Carmen" (circa 1908)
Born
Rosario Fernández Guerrero

about 1880
Spain
Died1960s (aged c. 80)
Madrid
NationalitySpanish
Other namesLa Bella Guerrero, Rose Guerrero
Occupationdancer

Early life

Guerrero was born in Spain; some sources give Madrid as the city, while she recalled a childhood in Seville.[1][2]

Career

Guerrero danced in Paris and London as a young woman.[3][4] She danced a ballet version of Carmen in 1903 in London at the Alhambra Theatre. "I reveled in it," she told an interviewer, "I felt that I was Carmen, and do you know, I verily believe that my Don José was now and again really afraid of me."[1] She danced in New York in 1903 and 1904, appearing in The Rose and the Dagger and The Red Feather.[5] In 1905, she was in London again,[6] in a pantomime called The Nightmare with music by A. Porinelly, at the Palace Theatre.[7][8]

In 1906 there were reports that she was hospitalized in Vienna in 1906, found "violently insane" from "excessive dancing".[9] She performed pantomime shows[10] in London in 1908,[11] in New York and Chicago in 1909,[12][13] and in other American cities including San Francisco and Indianapolis in 1910.[14][15] She owned a "small estate" in France.[16]

Guerrero was described as a "famous beauty" in 1908.[17] She posed for a series of portraits by German artist Friedrich August von Kaulbach, who considered them among his best work.[18] Arthur Kampf's celebrated 1906 canvas, Spanische Tänzerin is similarly believed to be a portrait of Guerrero.

Rosario Guerrero, from a 1905 publication.
Rosario Guerrero, from a 1905 publication.

Her sister Enriqueta, billed as "the Little Guerrero" and "Guerrerrito", also worked as a dancer in London in the 1900s.[19][20]

References
  1. Lee, Edgar (April 22, 1905). "A Chat with La Guerrero". Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. 63: 272.
  2. "Dancer Tells Story of 9 Years' Triumph". The Inter Ocean. May 30, 1909. p. 15. Retrieved April 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Christoforidis, Michael; Kertesz, Elizabeth (2018-11-08). Carmen and the Staging of Spain: Recasting Bizet's Opera in the Belle Epoque. Oxford University Press. p. 191. ISBN 9780190694838.
  4. "To the Tinkle of the Tambourine". The South Bend Tribune. October 2, 1903. p. 11. Retrieved April 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Untitled brief item". The New York Times. November 28, 1903. p. 6. Retrieved April 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "The Art of Pantomime". The Sketch. 50: 126. May 10, 1905 – via ProQuest.
  7. "Guerrero at the Palace Theatre". Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. 83: 174. April 1, 1905.
  8. "Musical and Dramatic Notes". The Railway Official Gazette: 62. April 1905.
  9. "Rosario Guerrero Made Insane by Own Music". Statesman Journal. December 9, 1906. p. 10. Retrieved April 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "This Beauty Does Not Talk at All". The San Francisco Call. September 19, 1909. p. 28. Retrieved April 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "The Pavilion". Truth. 63: 1461. June 10, 1908.
  12. "When Rose Guerrero Comes". New York Star: 18. March 6, 1909.
  13. "Theatres". The Reform Advocate. 38: 827. December 25, 1909.
  14. "Spanish Beauty is Orpheum Star". The San Francisco Examiner. September 16, 1909. p. 4. Retrieved April 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "Indianapolis". New York Dramatic Mirror. Vol. 63. January 15, 1910. p. 22. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  16. "Noted Dancer Wires $200 to Poor Man". Detroit Free Press. May 2, 1909. p. 53. Retrieved April 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Dancer, Pantomimist -- and Famous Beauty". The Sketch. 62: 128. May 6, 1908.
  18. Margaux, Adrian (1906). "My Best Picture; by the Most Eminent German Painters". The Strand Magazine. 31: 45–46.
  19. "The Little Guerrero". The Sketch. 52: 5. November 22, 1905 – via ProQuest.
  20. "The Spanish Dancer Guerrerito at the Palace". The Tatler. 18: 269. November 22, 1905 – via ProQuest.


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