Actress as actress - Teodora Lamadrid in the role of Adriana Lecouvreur, a portrait by Madrazo, 1852

Teodora Lamadrid (Theodora Hervella Cano; 26 November 1820, Zaragoza - 22 April 1896, Madrid), leading actress of the romantic Spanish theater during the nineteenth century, along with her older sister Bárbara Lamadrid and her rival Matilde Díez, the most celebrated actress of the period. Throughout her career she interpreted some of the most important pieces of classical theater, both in prose and in verse, and even performed in opera and zarzuela.

Performing on stage from the age of eight, in 1832, when she was still only twelve, she moved to Madrid where, along with her sister, she was hired by the famous director and impresario Juan Grimaldi to work at the Teatro del Príncipe and the Teatro de la Cruz. Her career progressed until, in 1851, she assayed her most famous role, that of Adriana Lecouvreur, the tragic story of the early eighteenth century French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur. (Lecouvreur's story is best known from its retelling in Francesco Cilea's opera, which premiered in 1902 and is still frequently performed today.) 

Lamadrid's repertoire was large and, like many Spanish-speaking performers, she toured many of the countries of Latin America. She married composer Basilio Basili and performed in both an opera and a zarzuela that he wrote. She was also an important teacher. She died at the age of seventy-five and is buried in the the cementerio de San Isidro in Madrid.

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A copy of the Madrazo portrait by Manuel Cabral y Aguado-Bejarano, 1853.

An engraving of the portrait.

Another portrait of Lamadrid, by Prudent-Louis Leray, 1856.