Opera in Latin America
Encyclopedia
The history of opera in Latin America dates back to at least the early 18th century when the earliest known opera
performances were performed in the country of Mexico
. It is within that nation that the first indigenous opera composers of Latin America
emerged, with Manuel de Zumaya
(c. 1678–1755) being considered the first and most important early opera composer. Outsider of Mexico, opera was slower to gain a foothold, and it wasn't until the early to mid 19th century that other nations in Latin America began producing their own opera composers. Many of these 19th century operas focus on the historical conflict between Europeans and indigenous peoples and were influenced by zarzuela
, a form of Spanish opera
.
In the 20th century many nationalist operas were composed across Latin America, with particularly thriving opera scenes in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. Today, there are numerous active opera houses active throughout Latin America and composers continue to write new operas.
premiered in the Viceroyalty of Peru
, the first opera known to be composed and performed in the Americas. It is an opera in one act by Spanish
composer Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco
with a libretto
by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
, and is the only surviving opera by Torrejón y Velasco. It tells the myth of the love of Venus and Adonis, which provoked Mars's jealousy and his desire for vengeance.
In 1711, the opera Partenope
premiered in Mexico City
. Its music was by Manuel de Zumaya
, the most important Mexican baroque composer. This opera is particularly important because it was the first opera composed in North America and the first opera composed in the Americas by someone from the Americas.
's I Due Gemelli ; the text has since been lost. A Noite de São João may be considered the first truly Brazilian opera, with a text in Portuguese by Elias Álvares Lobo
. The most famous Brazilian composer was Antônio Carlos Gomes
. Many of his operas premiered in Italy
, with texts in Italian. However, Gomes often used typically Brazilian themes in his work, such as in his operas Il Guarany
and Lo schiavo
.
The nineteenth-century opera Guatimotzin
by Mexican composer Aniceto Ortega
was the first conscious attempt to incorporate pre-Hispanic elements into the formal characteristics of opera. Other important 19th-century Mexican operas are Agorante, rey de la Nubia by Miguel Meneses (premiered during the commemorative festivities for the birthday of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico
), Pirro de Aragón by Leonardo Canales, and Keofar by Felipe Villanueva. The operatic works of Melesio Morales are the most important in Mexico in the 19th century. His operas Romeo y Julieta, Ildegonda, Gino Corsini, and Cleopatra were very successful among the public of Mexico City, and premiered in Europe. The last opera by Melesio Morales, Anita, which was composed in 1908, did not premiere until 2000.
Morales's last period of composition coincided with the creation of operas in Mexico by his son Julio Morales, and the operas of Felipe Villanueva, Ricardo Castro
, and Gustavo E. Campa. The work of Ricardo Castro is a part of the tradition of historic, nationalist operas, such as Guatimotzin by Aniceto Ortega
, Il Guarany
by Antônio Carlos Gomes
, Ollanta and Atahualpa by José María Valle Riestra, Huémac by Pascual de Rogatis, and Quiché Vinak by Jesús Castillo
. This tradition formed part of a turn-of-the-century operatic movement, in which other important figures included Eliodoro Ortiz de Zárate (Chile), José María Ponce de León (Colombia), Augusto Azzali (Colombia), León Ribeiro (Uruguay), Francisco Hargreaves (Argentina), Miguel Rojas (Argentina), and Edoardo Torrens (Argentina).
The first Venezuelan opera was El maestro Rufo Zapatero, an opera buffa
composed by José María Osorio in 1847. (However, many have called Virginia
, by José Ángel Montero
, the first Venezuelan opera, though it premiered in 1877 under the auspices of "Ilustre Americano" Antonio Guzmán Blanco
.) Earlier, various zarzuelas has been composed, but the first to premiere is believed to be Los alemanes en Italia by José Ángel Montero in the 1860s. Montero also premiered the one-act zarzuelas El Cumpleaños de Leonor, El Charlatán Mudo, La Modista, and many others. Another major Venezuelan composer was Reynaldo Hahn, who was greatly influenced by his teacher Jules Massenet
. In zarzuela, another important figure was Pedro Elías Gutiérrez
, who incorporated typically Venezuelan rhythms into his work.
Tomás Giribaldi
's La Parisina is considered the first Uruguayan opera. It premiered in September 1878. The work was very successful and awakened public interest in operas written by Uruguayan composers. Because of this success, the Uruguayan Oscar Camps y Soler wrote his opera Esmeralda, la gitana, based on the Victor Hugo
novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame
; the opera premiered in Montevideo
in 1879. Other Uruguayan composers that wrote opera in this era, motivated by the success of La Parisina, include León Ribeiro and Alfonso Broqua. León Ribeiro premiered his opera Colón in 1892 during the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. Alfonso Broqua wrote one opera, Tabaré, based on the eponymous 1888 poem by José Zorrilla de San Martín.
In the 19th century, a number of operas were produced in Latin America in which conflict between Europeans and indigenous peoples was a theme. Among the most important operas of this type are Liropeya by León Ribeiro (Uruguay); Guatimotzin by Aniceto Ortega
(Mexico); Il Guarany
by Antonio Carlos Gomes
(1836–1896), based on a novel by the Brazilian José Martiniano de Alencar
; Atzimba by Ricardo Castro
(Mexico, 1864–1907); the three eponymous operas based on the Tabaré by José Zorrilla de San Martín, written, respectively, by Arturo Cosgaya Ceballos (Mexico, 1869–1937), Heliodoro Oseguera (Mexico), and Alfonso Broqua (Uruguay); and the three Ecuadorian operas based on the novel Cumandá o un drama entre salvajes by Juan León Mera
, namely Cumandá by Luis H. Salgado
(1903–1977), Cumandá o la virgen de las selvas by Pedro Pablo Traversari Salazar (1874–1956), and Cumandá by Sixto María Durán Cárdenas (1875–1947).
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Argentina
In Argentina
, opera developed with the massive European (mainly Italian) inmigration at the beginning of the century and with the opening of the Teatro Colón in 1908 where most of those world premieres took place. The most influential Argentinian opera composers include Héctor Panizza (whose opera Aurora
was commissioned for the Colón inaugural season and Bizancio from 1939), Felipe Boero
(El Matrero from 1929 his most famous opera, also Tucumán 1918, Ariana y Dyonisos, 1920, Raquela, 1923 and Siripo, 1937), Juan José Castro
(composer of Bodas de sangre and La zapatera prodigiosa, both after Federico Garcia Lorca
's plays and Proserpina y el extranjero, 1952), Carlos López Buchardo
(El sueño de Alma, 1914), Pascual De Rogatis (Huemac, 1916 and La novia del hereje, 1934), Eduardo Garcia Mansilla (La angelical manuelita,1917), Constantino Gaito (Petronio, 1919; Ollantay, 1926, La sangre de las guitarras), 1927, Floro Ugarte (Saika, 1920), Gilardo Gilardi (Ilse, 1923; La leyenda del urutaú, 1934), Athos Palma (Nazdah, 1924), Hector Iglesias Villoud (El Oro del Inca, 1953), Virtú Maragno and Alberto Ginastera
composer of Don Rodrigo
, Beatrix Cenci
and Bomarzo
.
In recent years other Argentinean opera composers include Roberto Garcia Morillo (El caso Maillard, 1977) Mario Perusso (La voz del silencio), Claudio Guidi-Drei (Medea
, 1973), Juan Carlos Zorzi (Antigona Velez, 1991 and Don Juan, 1993), Pompeyo Camps (La hacienda, 1987, Marathon, 1990 and La oscuridad de la razón, 1996), Gerardo Gandini (La ciudad ausente, 1995 and Liederkreis, 2000), Ástor Piazzolla
(Maria de Buenos Aires
) and Osvaldo Golijov
(Ainadamar
).
Brazil
Important Brazilian opera composers in the first half of the 20th century include Heitor Villa-Lobos
, the composer of operas such as Izath, Yerma, and Aglaia; and Camargo Guarnieri
, composer of Um Homem Só and Pedro Malazarte. Contemporary Brazilian opera continues these avant-garde tendencies, as is the case with works like Olga by Jorge Antunes, A Tempestade by Ronaldo Miranda
, O Cientista by Silvio Barbato
, and "Tamanduá (The Anteater) - A Brazilian Opera" by Joao MacDowell
.
Mexico
Another interesting group is those composers that have tried to develop a Yucatecan operatic tradition based on Mayan legends. These composers typically work in Mérida
, Mexico, and have been scorned by Mexican nationalist historians. These composers include Cosgaya Ceballos, Ríos Escalante, Ricalde Moguel, Rivera Velador, Cárdenas Samada, and Jebe Halfdan. In the first half of the 20th century, composer Julián Carrillo
was an important figure in Mexican opera, along with composers similar to him, including Antonio Gomezanda, Juan León Mariscal, Julia Alonso, Sofía Cancino de Cuevas, José F. Vásquez, Arnulfo Miramontes, Rafael J. Tello, Francisco Camacho Vega, and Efraín Pérez Cámara. All of these composers have been relegated by official musical historiography, which only recognizes the work of nationalist composers.
Since the end of the 20th century in Mexico (and in all of Latin America), composers are increasingly interested in writing opera. Important Mexican opera composers in the early 21st century include Federico Ibarra, Daniel Catán
, Leandro Espinosa, Marcela Rodríguez
, Víctor Rasgado
, Javier Álvarez, Roberto Bañuelas, Luis Jaime Cortez, Julio Estrada
, Gabriela Ortiz
, Enrique González Medina, Manuel Henríquez Romero, Leopoldo Novoa, Hilda Paredes
, Mario Stern, René Torres, Juan Trigos
, Samuel Zyman, Mathias Hinke, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Isaac Bañuelos, Gabriel de Dios Figueroa, Enrique González-Medina, José Carlos Ibáñez Olvera, Víctor Mendoza and Emmanuel Vázquez.
Venezuela, Ecuador, etc.
Today, most operatic activity in Venezuela takes place at Teatro Teresa Carreño. Here, operas such as El Páramo by Alexis Rago and Los martirios de Colón by Federico Ruiz have recently premiered.
Recent Ecuadorian operas include Los Enemigos by Mesías Maiguashca
, based on the story The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges
; Manuela y Bolívar by Diego Luzuriaga; and the instrumental opera El árbol de los pájaros by Arturo Rodas
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
performances were performed in the country of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. It is within that nation that the first indigenous opera composers of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
emerged, with Manuel de Zumaya
Manuel de Zumaya
Manuel de Zumaya or Manuel de Sumaya was perhaps the most famous Mexican composer of the colonial period of New Spain. His music was the culmination of the Baroque style in the New World; of Spanish, French, Dutch, British, and Portuguese colonial composers, none stand out as much as Zumaya did...
(c. 1678–1755) being considered the first and most important early opera composer. Outsider of Mexico, opera was slower to gain a foothold, and it wasn't until the early to mid 19th century that other nations in Latin America began producing their own opera composers. Many of these 19th century operas focus on the historical conflict between Europeans and indigenous peoples and were influenced by zarzuela
Zarzuela
Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance...
, a form of Spanish opera
Spanish opera
Spanish opera is both the art of opera in Spain and opera in the Spanish language. Opera has existed in Spain since the mid 17th century.-Early history:...
.
In the 20th century many nationalist operas were composed across Latin America, with particularly thriving opera scenes in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. Today, there are numerous active opera houses active throughout Latin America and composers continue to write new operas.
18th-century opera
Opera arrived in Latin America as a consequence of European colonization. On October 19, 1701, La púrpura de la rosaLa púrpura de la rosa
La púrpura de la rosa is an opera in one act, composed by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco to a Spanish libretto by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, the last great writer of the Spanish Golden Age. It is the first known opera to be composed and performed in the Americas and is Torrejón y Velasco's only...
premiered in the Viceroyalty of Peru
Viceroyalty of Peru
Created in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled South America, governed from the capital of Lima...
, the first opera known to be composed and performed in the Americas. It is an opera in one act by Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
composer Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco
Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco
Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco Sánchez was a Spanish composer, musician and organist based in Peru, associated with the American Baroque.-Life:...
with a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...
, and is the only surviving opera by Torrejón y Velasco. It tells the myth of the love of Venus and Adonis, which provoked Mars's jealousy and his desire for vengeance.
In 1711, the opera Partenope
Partenope (Zumaya)
Partenope is an opera in three acts by composer Manuel de Zumaya. Zumaya adapted the libretto himself from a Spanish translation of Silvio Stampiglia’s Italian libretto which was first set for performance in Naples during 1699 with music by Luigi Mancia...
premiered in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. Its music was by Manuel de Zumaya
Manuel de Zumaya
Manuel de Zumaya or Manuel de Sumaya was perhaps the most famous Mexican composer of the colonial period of New Spain. His music was the culmination of the Baroque style in the New World; of Spanish, French, Dutch, British, and Portuguese colonial composers, none stand out as much as Zumaya did...
, the most important Mexican baroque composer. This opera is particularly important because it was the first opera composed in North America and the first opera composed in the Americas by someone from the Americas.
19th-century opera
The first opera composed and premiered in Brazil was José Maurício Nunes GarciaJosé Maurício Nunes Garcia
José Maurício Nunes Garcia was a Brazilian classical composer, one of the greatest exponents of Classicism in the Americas....
's I Due Gemelli ; the text has since been lost. A Noite de São João may be considered the first truly Brazilian opera, with a text in Portuguese by Elias Álvares Lobo
Elias Álvares Lobo
Elias Álvares Lobo was a Brazilian composer.Lobo was born at Itu. He wrote the first Brazilian opera in the Portuguese language, A Noite de São João . -References:...
. The most famous Brazilian composer was Antônio Carlos Gomes
Antônio Carlos Gomes
Antônio Carlos Gomes was the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe.-Life:He was born in Campinas, Brazil, son of Maestro Manuel José Gomes and Fabiana Maria Jaguari Cardoso....
. Many of his operas premiered in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, with texts in Italian. However, Gomes often used typically Brazilian themes in his work, such as in his operas Il Guarany
Il Guarany
Il Guarany is an opera ballo composed by Antônio Carlos Gomes, based on the novel O Guarani, written by José de Alencar. The libretto was written by Antonio Scalvini and Carlo D'Ormeville.-Performance history:...
and Lo schiavo
Lo schiavo
Lo schiavo is an opera seria in four acts by the Brazilian composer Carlos Gomes. The Italian libretto was by Rodolfo Paravicini, after a play by Alfredo Taunay...
.
The nineteenth-century opera Guatimotzin
Guatimotzin
Guatimotzin is an opera in one act and nine scenes composed by Aniceto Ortega del Villar to a libretto in Spanish by José Tomás de Cuéllar. It premiered on 13 September 1871 at the Gran Teatro Nacional in Mexico City. Described as an episodio musical , its plot is based on the defense of Mexico by...
by Mexican composer Aniceto Ortega
Aniceto Ortega
Aniceto de los Dolores Luis Gonzaga Ortega del Villar was a Mexican physician, composer, and pianist. Although he had a distinguished career as a physician and surgeon, he is also remembered today for his 1871 opera Guatimotzin, one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native...
was the first conscious attempt to incorporate pre-Hispanic elements into the formal characteristics of opera. Other important 19th-century Mexican operas are Agorante, rey de la Nubia by Miguel Meneses (premiered during the commemorative festivities for the birthday of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy...
), Pirro de Aragón by Leonardo Canales, and Keofar by Felipe Villanueva. The operatic works of Melesio Morales are the most important in Mexico in the 19th century. His operas Romeo y Julieta, Ildegonda, Gino Corsini, and Cleopatra were very successful among the public of Mexico City, and premiered in Europe. The last opera by Melesio Morales, Anita, which was composed in 1908, did not premiere until 2000.
Morales's last period of composition coincided with the creation of operas in Mexico by his son Julio Morales, and the operas of Felipe Villanueva, Ricardo Castro
Ricardo Castro
Ricardo Castro Herrera was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz.- Life :Castro's father, Vicente Castro, was a deputy congressman; his mother was María de Jesús Herrera...
, and Gustavo E. Campa. The work of Ricardo Castro is a part of the tradition of historic, nationalist operas, such as Guatimotzin by Aniceto Ortega
Aniceto Ortega
Aniceto de los Dolores Luis Gonzaga Ortega del Villar was a Mexican physician, composer, and pianist. Although he had a distinguished career as a physician and surgeon, he is also remembered today for his 1871 opera Guatimotzin, one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native...
, Il Guarany
Il Guarany
Il Guarany is an opera ballo composed by Antônio Carlos Gomes, based on the novel O Guarani, written by José de Alencar. The libretto was written by Antonio Scalvini and Carlo D'Ormeville.-Performance history:...
by Antônio Carlos Gomes
Antônio Carlos Gomes
Antônio Carlos Gomes was the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe.-Life:He was born in Campinas, Brazil, son of Maestro Manuel José Gomes and Fabiana Maria Jaguari Cardoso....
, Ollanta and Atahualpa by José María Valle Riestra, Huémac by Pascual de Rogatis, and Quiché Vinak by Jesús Castillo
Jesús Castillo
Jesús Castillo is a defender currently playing for the club Jaguares de Chiapas on loan from Monarcas Morelia, in the Primera División de México.-External links:...
. This tradition formed part of a turn-of-the-century operatic movement, in which other important figures included Eliodoro Ortiz de Zárate (Chile), José María Ponce de León (Colombia), Augusto Azzali (Colombia), León Ribeiro (Uruguay), Francisco Hargreaves (Argentina), Miguel Rojas (Argentina), and Edoardo Torrens (Argentina).
The first Venezuelan opera was El maestro Rufo Zapatero, an opera buffa
Opera buffa
Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
composed by José María Osorio in 1847. (However, many have called Virginia
Virginia (Montero)
Virginia is an opera in four acts with music by Venezuelan composer José Ángel Montero and libretto, in Italian, by Domenico Bancalari. It is believed to be the first opera ever composed in Venezuela, and was first performed in the Teatro Caracas on April 26, 1873...
, by José Ángel Montero
José Ángel Montero
José Ángel Montero was a Venezuelan opera composer, a contemporary of the Brazilian Carlos Gomes...
, the first Venezuelan opera, though it premiered in 1877 under the auspices of "Ilustre Americano" Antonio Guzmán Blanco
Antonio Guzmán Blanco
Antonio Leocadio Guzmán Blanco was President of Venezuela for three separate terms, from 1870–1877, from 1879–1884, and from 1886–1887....
.) Earlier, various zarzuelas has been composed, but the first to premiere is believed to be Los alemanes en Italia by José Ángel Montero in the 1860s. Montero also premiered the one-act zarzuelas El Cumpleaños de Leonor, El Charlatán Mudo, La Modista, and many others. Another major Venezuelan composer was Reynaldo Hahn, who was greatly influenced by his teacher Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
. In zarzuela, another important figure was Pedro Elías Gutiérrez
Pedro Elías Gutiérrez
Pedro Elías Gutiérrez was a Venezuelan musician who is mainly remembered by the joropo song Alma Llanera, whose music he composed.-Life and valoration:...
, who incorporated typically Venezuelan rhythms into his work.
Tomás Giribaldi
Tomás Giribaldi
Tomás Giribaldi was an Uruguayan composer. His opera La Parisina, premiered at the Solís Theatre in Montevideo on September 14, 1878, is considered the first Uruguayan national opera. It was composed in Italian, and set to a modified libretto by Felice Romani which had previously been used for...
's La Parisina is considered the first Uruguayan opera. It premiered in September 1878. The work was very successful and awakened public interest in operas written by Uruguayan composers. Because of this success, the Uruguayan Oscar Camps y Soler wrote his opera Esmeralda, la gitana, based on the Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...
; the opera premiered in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
in 1879. Other Uruguayan composers that wrote opera in this era, motivated by the success of La Parisina, include León Ribeiro and Alfonso Broqua. León Ribeiro premiered his opera Colón in 1892 during the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. Alfonso Broqua wrote one opera, Tabaré, based on the eponymous 1888 poem by José Zorrilla de San Martín.
In the 19th century, a number of operas were produced in Latin America in which conflict between Europeans and indigenous peoples was a theme. Among the most important operas of this type are Liropeya by León Ribeiro (Uruguay); Guatimotzin by Aniceto Ortega
Aniceto Ortega
Aniceto de los Dolores Luis Gonzaga Ortega del Villar was a Mexican physician, composer, and pianist. Although he had a distinguished career as a physician and surgeon, he is also remembered today for his 1871 opera Guatimotzin, one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native...
(Mexico); Il Guarany
Il Guarany
Il Guarany is an opera ballo composed by Antônio Carlos Gomes, based on the novel O Guarani, written by José de Alencar. The libretto was written by Antonio Scalvini and Carlo D'Ormeville.-Performance history:...
by Antonio Carlos Gomes
Antônio Carlos Gomes
Antônio Carlos Gomes was the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe.-Life:He was born in Campinas, Brazil, son of Maestro Manuel José Gomes and Fabiana Maria Jaguari Cardoso....
(1836–1896), based on a novel by the Brazilian José Martiniano de Alencar
José Martiniano de Alencar
José Martiniano Pereira de Alencar was a Brazilian politician, journalist and priest, father of famous Brazilian novelist José de Alencar and diplomat Leonel Martiniano de Alencar, the Baron of Alencar....
; Atzimba by Ricardo Castro
Ricardo Castro
Ricardo Castro Herrera was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz.- Life :Castro's father, Vicente Castro, was a deputy congressman; his mother was María de Jesús Herrera...
(Mexico, 1864–1907); the three eponymous operas based on the Tabaré by José Zorrilla de San Martín, written, respectively, by Arturo Cosgaya Ceballos (Mexico, 1869–1937), Heliodoro Oseguera (Mexico), and Alfonso Broqua (Uruguay); and the three Ecuadorian operas based on the novel Cumandá o un drama entre salvajes by Juan León Mera
Juan León Mera
Juan León Mera Martínez was an Ecuadorian poet, novelist, journalist, critic, politician and satirist....
, namely Cumandá by Luis H. Salgado
Luis H. Salgado
Luis Humberto Salgado Ecuadorian composer regarded as one of the most influential and prolific of his country.-Biography:...
(1903–1977), Cumandá o la virgen de las selvas by Pedro Pablo Traversari Salazar (1874–1956), and Cumandá by Sixto María Durán Cárdenas (1875–1947).
20th century and contemporary opera
In Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, opera developed with the massive European (mainly Italian) inmigration at the beginning of the century and with the opening of the Teatro Colón in 1908 where most of those world premieres took place. The most influential Argentinian opera composers include Héctor Panizza (whose opera Aurora
Aurora (opera)
Aurora is an opera in three acts by the Argentine composer Héctor Panizza set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Hector Quesada. Composed in 1907, Aurora became the second national opera of Argentina, after Felipe Boero's more popular El Matrero. Although its plot is set in Argentina,...
was commissioned for the Colón inaugural season and Bizancio from 1939), Felipe Boero
Felipe Boero
Felipe Boero was an Argentine composer and music educator. He is most famous for composing the opera El Matrero, considered one of the national operas of Argentina; among his other works is the opera Tucumán, about the Battle of Tucumán. He also was interested in education policy...
(El Matrero from 1929 his most famous opera, also Tucumán 1918, Ariana y Dyonisos, 1920, Raquela, 1923 and Siripo, 1937), Juan José Castro
Juan José Castro
Juan José Castro was an Argentine composer and conductor.Born in Avellaneda, Castro studied piano and violin under Manuel Posadas and composition under Eduarno Fornarini, in Buenos Aires. In the 1920s he was awarded the Europa Prize, and then went on to study in Paris at the Schola Cantorum under...
(composer of Bodas de sangre and La zapatera prodigiosa, both after Federico Garcia Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
's plays and Proserpina y el extranjero, 1952), Carlos López Buchardo
Carlos López Buchardo
Carlos Félix López Buchardo was an Argentine composer whose work was inspired by native music....
(El sueño de Alma, 1914), Pascual De Rogatis (Huemac, 1916 and La novia del hereje, 1934), Eduardo Garcia Mansilla (La angelical manuelita,1917), Constantino Gaito (Petronio, 1919; Ollantay, 1926, La sangre de las guitarras), 1927, Floro Ugarte (Saika, 1920), Gilardo Gilardi (Ilse, 1923; La leyenda del urutaú, 1934), Athos Palma (Nazdah, 1924), Hector Iglesias Villoud (El Oro del Inca, 1953), Virtú Maragno and Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.- Biography :...
composer of Don Rodrigo
Don Rodrigo
Don Rodrigo is an opera in three acts by Alberto Ginastera, the composer's first opera, to an original Spanish libretto by Alejandro Casona. Ginastera composed the opera on commission from the Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first performance was at the Teatro Colón,...
, Beatrix Cenci
Beatrix Cenci
Beatrix Cenci is an opera in two acts by Alberto Ginastera to a Spanish libretto by the composer and William Shand, based on the historical family of Beatrice Cenci, the Chroniques italiennes by Stendhal, and The Cenci by Percy Shelley. The first performance was on 10 September 1971 by the Opera...
and Bomarzo
Bomarzo
Bomarzo is a town and comune of the province of Viterbo , in the lower valley of the Tiber. It is located 14.5 km ENE of Viterbo and 68 km NNW of Rome.-History:...
.
In recent years other Argentinean opera composers include Roberto Garcia Morillo (El caso Maillard, 1977) Mario Perusso (La voz del silencio), Claudio Guidi-Drei (Medea
Medea
Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
, 1973), Juan Carlos Zorzi (Antigona Velez, 1991 and Don Juan, 1993), Pompeyo Camps (La hacienda, 1987, Marathon, 1990 and La oscuridad de la razón, 1996), Gerardo Gandini (La ciudad ausente, 1995 and Liederkreis, 2000), Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...
(Maria de Buenos Aires
María de Buenos Aires
María de Buenos Aires is a tango opera with music by Ástor Piazzolla. and libretto by Horacio Ferrer which premiered at the Sala Planeta in Buenos Aires in May 1968....
) and Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...
(Ainadamar
Ainadamar
Ainadamar means "Fountain of Tears" in Arabic, and is the first opera by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The libretto is by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It premiered in Tanglewood on August 10, 2003. After major revisions, the new version premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 30,...
).
Brazil
Important Brazilian opera composers in the first half of the 20th century include Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
, the composer of operas such as Izath, Yerma, and Aglaia; and Camargo Guarnieri
Camargo Guarnieri
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri was a Brazilian composer.-Name:He was registered at birth as Mozart Guarnieri, but when he began a musical career, he decided his first name was too pretentious and subject to puns. Thus he adopted his mother's maiden name Camargo as a middle name, and thenceforth signed...
, composer of Um Homem Só and Pedro Malazarte. Contemporary Brazilian opera continues these avant-garde tendencies, as is the case with works like Olga by Jorge Antunes, A Tempestade by Ronaldo Miranda
Ronaldo Miranda
Ronaldo Miranda is a Brazilian composer and music professor.Miranda studied at the Escola de Música da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, under Henrique Morelenbaum for composition and Dulce de Saules for piano....
, O Cientista by Silvio Barbato
Silvio Barbato
Silvio Sergio Bonaccorsi Barbato was an Italian-Brazilian opera conductor and composer. He died on board Air France Flight 447.-Life and career:...
, and "Tamanduá (The Anteater) - A Brazilian Opera" by Joao MacDowell
Joao MacDowell
Brazilian musical artist Joao MacDowell, born in Brasilia, started his professional career as leader and vocalist of the Brazilian cult band Tonton Macoute...
.
Mexico
Another interesting group is those composers that have tried to develop a Yucatecan operatic tradition based on Mayan legends. These composers typically work in Mérida
Merida
Places of the world named Mérida or Merida include:*Mérida, Spain, capital city of the Spanish Community of Extremadura*Mérida, Yucatán, capital city of the Mexican state of Yucatán*Merida, Leyte, a municipality in Leyte province in the Philippines...
, Mexico, and have been scorned by Mexican nationalist historians. These composers include Cosgaya Ceballos, Ríos Escalante, Ricalde Moguel, Rivera Velador, Cárdenas Samada, and Jebe Halfdan. In the first half of the 20th century, composer Julián Carrillo
Julián Carrillo
Julián Carrillo Trujillo was a Mexican composer, conductor, violinist and music theorist, famous for developing a theory of microtonal music which he dubbed "The Thirteenth Sound" .-Biography:...
was an important figure in Mexican opera, along with composers similar to him, including Antonio Gomezanda, Juan León Mariscal, Julia Alonso, Sofía Cancino de Cuevas, José F. Vásquez, Arnulfo Miramontes, Rafael J. Tello, Francisco Camacho Vega, and Efraín Pérez Cámara. All of these composers have been relegated by official musical historiography, which only recognizes the work of nationalist composers.
Since the end of the 20th century in Mexico (and in all of Latin America), composers are increasingly interested in writing opera. Important Mexican opera composers in the early 21st century include Federico Ibarra, Daniel Catán
Daniel Catán
Daniel Catán was a Mexican composer of Russian Sephardic Jewish descent known particularly for his operas and his creative friendship with the tenor Plácido Domingo.-Career:...
, Leandro Espinosa, Marcela Rodríguez
Marcela Rodríguez (composer)
-Biography:Marcela Rodríguez was born in Mexico City.] Leo Brouwer of Cuba. She studied for a while in London, and then returned to Mexico City to study with Julio Estrada . Rodríguez works have been performed internationally, including the USA, Venezuela, Spain, and Greece...
, Víctor Rasgado
Victor Rasgado
Víctor Rasgado is a Mexican pianist and classical composer, whose works have been performed in Mexico, the United States, Italy and the Netherlands.-Biography:...
, Javier Álvarez, Roberto Bañuelas, Luis Jaime Cortez, Julio Estrada
Julio Estrada
Julio Estrada Velasco was born in Mexico City, April 10, 1943. His family was exiled from Spain in 1941. He is a composer, theoretician, historian, pedagogue, and interpreter.-Life:...
, Gabriela Ortiz
Gabriela Ortiz
-Biography:Gabriela Ortiz Torres was born in Mexico City of parents who were folk musicians. She learned folk music at home, and then studied in Paris at the Ecole Normale de Musique. She returned to Mexico City due to the illness of her mother, and studied composition there with Mario Lavista at...
, Enrique González Medina, Manuel Henríquez Romero, Leopoldo Novoa, Hilda Paredes
Hilda Paredes
Hilda Paredes is one of Mexico's leading contemporary composers, and has received many prestigious awards for her work...
, Mario Stern, René Torres, Juan Trigos
Juan Trigos
Juan Trigos, is a Mexican Composer and Conductor, born February 26, 1965, in Mexico City.- Biography :Composer and conductor, creator of the concept Abstract Folklore. This concept is based on principles such as the primary pulsation, the resonance and the obsessive use of polyrhythmic and...
, Samuel Zyman, Mathias Hinke, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Isaac Bañuelos, Gabriel de Dios Figueroa, Enrique González-Medina, José Carlos Ibáñez Olvera, Víctor Mendoza and Emmanuel Vázquez.
Venezuela, Ecuador, etc.
Today, most operatic activity in Venezuela takes place at Teatro Teresa Carreño. Here, operas such as El Páramo by Alexis Rago and Los martirios de Colón by Federico Ruiz have recently premiered.
Recent Ecuadorian operas include Los Enemigos by Mesías Maiguashca
Mesías Maiguashca
Mesías Maiguashca , is an Ecuadorian composer, an advocate of the new music, especially electroacoustic music.-Biography:...
, based on the story The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
; Manuela y Bolívar by Diego Luzuriaga; and the instrumental opera El árbol de los pájaros by Arturo Rodas
Arturo Rodas
- Biography:Rodas studied at the National Conservatory in Quito, took private composition lessons with Gerardo Guevara, and also graduated in Law at the Universidad Central del Ecuador. Between 1978 and 1980 he was assistant to the French composer José Berghmans in Quito and Paris. He studied at...
.
See also
- Opera in VenezuelaOpera in VenezuelaIn Venezuela, since the opening of the Teatro Caracas and, earlier, the Teatro Maderero , there whas been a great lyrical tradition ranging from serious opera to operetta, zarzuela, and Spanish musical reviews....
- List of Mexican operas
- List of Argentine operas
- List of Latin American and South American opera companies
- Teatro Colón