Release date is 2025-11-27

Editor digital: Joan Queralt Gil

La neboda by Teodoro Baró is a stage comedy in three acts written in the late 19th century. Set in a Catalan village house owned by a distinguished doctor, it satirizes class pretension and the tug-of-war between romantic feeling and social ambition. The story follows the proud widow Doña Maria as she tries to block her son Mariano’s love for the humble Ramoneta, even as she herself warms to the village doctor, with a chorus of quick-tongued servants fueling intrigue and humor.

The opening of the play establishes the bustling country household: Miquel and Antonia haggle over provisions, while the cook Tuyas duels wittily with local tastes, and Nando boasts and flirts. Tayabas, a talkative go‑between, lets slip Maria’s modest past and her determination to stop Mariano from marrying a shopkeeper’s daughter, prompting comic plans like staging a “successful” hunt with released tame rabbits. Maria and Mariano clash over his intentions, and the local physician Don Tomás—once the student “Tomaset,” now a retired general—arrives, rekindling a warm familiarity with Maria. At the start of the second act the salon is spruced up, a fruit basket arrives from Ramoneta, Tayabas monitors letters from Barcelona, and Mariano returns to scold him for meddling; Don Tomás privately admits he’s in love, and he and Maria cautiously contemplate marriage while worrying how to break the news to family. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Barcelona: Imprempta d'en Joaquím Collazos, 1900