The son of a boat steward, he studied with Lamberto Alonso at the conservatory of his native Valencia. It seems that he made his debut in fall
1910 in Palma de Mallorca in a guest performance of the Madrid-based Teatro Apolo (also his sister Ángela had a contract at the Apolo,
she had made her debut in Valencia a few months earlier); they performed Die lustige Witwe and Die Dollarprinzessin, both in
Spanish of course. José García Romero went on to sing with touring companies and in Bilbao before arriving in Madrid at the Teatro
Lírico in 1912. The Lírico was one of the leading zarzuela theaters, but he sang also opera there for the first time: Marina
and Cavalleria rusticana.
He had great success, at the Lírico, in Bohemios, and was therefore chosen by Amadeo Vives to premiere his new zarzuela La
generala at the same theater (June 1912). It was another great success, and the same summer, the Lírico company performed the new
work also in Barcelona.
In 1913, García Romero was hired by the reopened Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid (which had been closed for a few years after a fire). He
sang in Molinos de viento, El rey que rabió or Cavalleria rusticana, the he performed in Barcelona.
In 1914, he made his first South America tour (Uruguay, Argentina).
In 1915, he participated in the prestigious Easter concert of Hilarió Eslava's mass Miserere at the Sevilla Cathedral, and was
hired for a Spanish opera season at the Teatro Real in Madrid; he appeared in Marina, Maruxa (by Vives), La Dolores and
Margarita la tornera (by Chapí).
From now until the end of the 1920s, he would sing a great many performances, dividing his time between Madrid, Barcelona, South America and the
Spanish provinces, never giving the voice much rest. (He needed money since he had no less than seven children.) His specialty was zarzuela, and
he sang at all zarzuela theaters in Madrid: Apolo, Pavón, Price, Español... At the Pavón, he premiered Pablo Luna's
Sangre de reyes in 1925, under the baton of the composer. Another world premiere in which he participated was La noche de las coplas
by Rafael Millán (Teatro Principal, Valencia, 1922). He also sang frequently on two radio stations (Unión and Ibérica).
A few years into the 1930s, his voice was exhausted, and in 1934, he became a voice teacher at the Academia de Música y Declamación
de Gran Canaria in Las Palmas, while his family continued to live in Madrid. He stayed in Las Palmas for the entire Civil War; he also directed
the choir, and in the end the whole Academia. However, in the Civil War, the Academia lost so many students who had to serve in the military,
that it was forced to close by the end of 1940.
García Romero returned to Madrid in 1941, where he worked as an advertising salesman.
Reference
