ABSTRACT
The work of Gerhard Steingress stands out as a strong alternative to Cruces Roldan's. Steingress's work deserves reflection and assessment because of the stridency of his critique of the conventional definition of flamenco and because of the volume and breadth of historical documentation that he has provided in support of his critique. The nascent nationalism of the last decade of the eighteenth century was crucial for the development of flamenco. Under the influence of Romanticism, audiences and also intellectuals began to regard flamenco performers as authentic Andalusians and to suppose that all Andalusians were flamencos at heart. In order to better understand how the cafes in Spain developed their new style and approach, Steingress explored the background of that most illustrious of impresarios Silverio Franconetti, whose Cafe de Silverio served as the prototype for the many cafes that were to follow in the nineteenth century.
