Enriqueta Legorreta

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In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Legorreta and the second or maternal family name is López.
Enriqueta Legorreta
Aguascalientes, Mexico
EducationConservatorio Nacional de Música
Occupations
Years active1941–1998
Children5, including Enriqueta and Rodrigo

Enriqueta Legorreta (25 July 1914 – 15 December 2010) was a Mexican soprano and activist. She grew up in Mexico City and studied opera at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música. Debuting in 1941, she earned praise for her portrayal of Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre and was noted as the first Mexican woman to sing a Wagnerian opera. She was one of the pioneering singers who joined and performed in the inaugural season of the Ópera Nacional (National Opera), performing Leonora in Beethoven's Fidelio in 1943. During her career, which lasted into the mid-1970s, she sang with many well-known conductors and musicians, including Claudio Arrau, Leonard Bernstein, Pablo Casals, Igor Stravinsky, and Isaac Stern. She was also involved in protests against the opera association to ensure that singers were paid for their professional work, rather than their affiliations with officials.

From the 1980s, Legorreta became concerned about links between pollutants and health. She volunteered for clean-up efforts at the Parque Real de San Lucas (Royal Park of San Lucas) sponsored by the Asociación Ecológica de Coyoacán (Ecological Association of Coyoacán). After the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, she and her family participated in humanitarian efforts to help victims of the disaster. Seeking healthier surroundings, the extended family moved to Aguascalientes in 1987. Concerned at the lack of interest in addressing environmental issues, she organized recycling measures and related projects. These led in 1992 to the establishment of the Asociación Conciencia Ecológica (Ecological Consciousness Association), for which she served as director until 1998 and as life president until her death in 2010. She was twice recognized with the Aguascalientes state prize for Environmental Merit, in 2007 and posthumously in 2019.

Early life and education

Enriqueta Legorreta López was born on 25 July 1914 in Mexico City to Enriqueta López-Valdés Ocampo and Juan de Dios Legorreta.[1] Her father was a social reformer, motivational speaker, and author.[2][3][4] She studied music under Franz Steiner,[5] an Austrian refugee who served as professor of opera at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música and would later become a co-founder of the Compañía Ópera de México (Opera of Mexico Company).[6][7] She performed her first aria with the company in 1940, the year it was created.[5][8]

Career

Opera (1941–1976)

Legorreta made her public debut in 1941 at the

musicologist, professor at the Universidad Veracruzana and collaborator for The New Grove Dictionary of Opera,[9] noted that the highlight of the inaugural season was the discovery of three Mexican women singers, María Luisa Enríquez, Irma González, and Legorreta.[10] In 1943, the opera season was organized by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature) and led to the creation of the new company the Asociación Nacional de Ópera (National Opera Association). The season was launched with the performance of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Palacio,[11] with Legorreta singing the title role.[5] Verna Millan in a review for Musical America said of Legorreta's performance, that it was a warm and relatable interpretation, although the singer was inexperienced and her voice had a more lyric than dramatic quality.[12]

On 8 July 1944, in

Le Baiser de la fée (The Fairy's Kiss), and Le chant du rossignol (The Song of the Nightingale).[16] Legorreta performed a solo concert accompanied by Maria Kokowska in the Ponce Salon of the Instituto Mexicano Norteamericano (Mexican-North American Institute) which featured two pieces each by Salvador Moreno and Manuel Ponce, Spirituals and pieces by George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern in 1956.[17]

Legorreta continued singing with several different groups in the 1960s and 1970s, performing with Pablo Casals as a soloist at the festival bearing his name in Acapulco in 1960,[18] with the Symphonic Orchestra of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1961,[19] and sang on KQED TV's program Spanish-American Hour in a 1964 broadcast.[20] She appeared as Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites for the 1965 opera season,[5] and the following year sang under the direction of Luis Ximénez [es] in the second season of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Noroeste (Northwest Symphony Orchestra).[21] In 1967, Legorreta performed music accompanied by Ramón Mier and the Mexican Children's Choir for a lecture made by Carmen Sordo of the Musical Research Department of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, which focused on music from the period of Benito Juárez's presidency. The concert-lecture was held at the Mexican-Israeli Cultural Institute.[22] She performed with Leonard Bernstein in 1969 in the opera-concerto Trouble in Tahiti.[5] Legorreta and Guillermo Salvador were the featured soloists for the 1972 summer season of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, conducted by Luis Herrera de la Fuente at the Alcazar del Castillo de Chapultepec (Imperial Chamber of Chapultepec Castle) and repeated later that year at the Conservatorio Nacional.[23] In 1976, she was part of the production Música en la Pinacoteca (Music in the Art Gallery), which was performed with the Orquesta de Cámara de la Ciudad de México [es] (Chamber Orchestra of Mexico City), under the direction of Miguel Bernal.[24]

Beginning in the late 1960s, social unrest led to political actions both globally and in Mexico.[21][25] Student protests in 1968 erupted because of frustration with the economy, repressive government policies and widespread corruption, as well as unequal opportunity and treatment for broad sectors of Mexican society.[26] Though begun by students, the movement spread quickly to other segments of the population, which demanded social change.[27] Sopranos Legorreta, Judith Sierra, and Aurora Woodrow led demonstrations of musicians against the policies of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Secretariat of Public Education.[28][29] They protested the pay scheme that distributed the national subsidy or scholarships for opera to singers who were not qualified, working, or performing. In 1975, they formed the Asociación Nacional de Cantantes de Opera (National Association of Opera Singers) advocating payment based on merit, professionalism, and free of political allegiance.[28]

Environmental activism (1980s–2010)

The Mexican environmental movement began to emerge at the end of the 1970s and early 1980s. Increases in pollution soared in Mexico City, causing health complications for inhabitants.

typhoid, began to question the links between disease and the environment.[32][33] Concerned activists formed the Asociación Ecológica de Coyoacán (Ecological Association of Coyoacán) around this time,[33] and Legorreta volunteered for the organization. She urged her children to participate in activities to clean up the Parque Real de San Lucas (Royal Park of San Lucas) in the borough of Coyoacán.[32][34]

The government was unable to address the devastation which occurred following the

Aguascalientes City, Mexico. When she arrived, Legorreta searched for another environmental organization with which she could participate. She discovered a group that was working to stop a housing development in the Fraccionamiento Bosques (Bosques neighborhood) in favor of creating a park. The group was successful, but soon disbanded.[34] Wishing to continue efforts aimed at environmental protection, she broadcast an invitation to form an ecological association on the radio station of the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes in 1988.[34][35] In addition to members of her own family, those who answered the call included David Avalos; Juan Claudio, Liliana, Mariana, and Pablo Juárez; Rosalba Landeros; Carmen López de Tenorio; Esther Naranjo; and Gerardo, Humberto, and Marisol Tenorio.[34]

The group contacted the priest of the Templo de los Dolores and worked out a plan to exchange recyclable waste for tree saplings. A local facility agreed to remove the recyclable donations and the Directorate of Parks and Gardens provided the trees. The event was successful and led the group to take on other projects, such as clean up of local parks and rivers.[36][35] In 1992, the group was formally organized into the Asociación Conciencia Ecológica (Ecological Consciousness Association), directed by Legorreta. For the next six years, she headed the association, before handing the directorship over to her daughter. She remained the honorary life president until 2010.[37] In 2007, she was awarded the Aguascalientes state prize for Environmental Merit.[38]

Death and legacy

Legorreta died on 15 December 2010 in Aguascalientes City and a memorial honoring her life's work was held two days later.[39][40] Legorreta is remembered as one of the Mexican opera singers who performed in the inaugural season of the Ópera Nacional (National Opera) and the first Mexican woman to perform a Wagnerian opera in Mexico.[41][42] Posthumously, she was honored in 2019 with a second award of the Aguascalientes state prize for Environmental Merit, in recognition of her pioneering role in developing environmental awareness in the state.[35]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Birth Registry 1914, p. 184.
  2. ^ Adame Goddard 1981, p. 169.
  3. ^ Fuentes 2018.
  4. ^ Legorreta 1946.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Pareyón 2007, p. 582.
  6. ^ Kloyber 2005.
  7. ^ García de Mendoza 1941, p. 90.
  8. ^ a b c Bal y Gay 1941, p. 18.
  9. ^ Ediciones Akal 2022.
  10. ^ Miranda 1993, p. 182.
  11. ^ Brenner 1943, p. 13.
  12. ^ Millan 1943, p. 15.
  13. ^ Marriage Registry 1944, p. 27.
  14. ^ Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México 2019.
  15. ^ Baqueiro Foster 1945, p. 57.
  16. ^ Kahan 1948, p. 9, 17.
  17. ^ Poore 1956, p. 6A.
  18. ^ Rebolledo Ayerdi 2021.
  19. ^ Gaceta de la Universidad 1961, p. 2.
  20. ^ The Salinas Californian 1964, p. 10.
  21. ^ a b Ruffo Kelly 2016.
  22. ^ Prensa Israelita 1967, p. 2.
  23. ^ Revista de Bellas Artes 1972, p. 178.
  24. ^ Revista de Bellas Artes 1976, p. 42.
  25. ^ Vargas Valdez 2015, p. 738.
  26. ^ Vargas Valdez 2015, pp. 738–740.
  27. ^ Vargas Valdez 2015, p. 740.
  28. ^ a b Pulido 1975, p. 4.
  29. ^ Rodríguez 2022.
  30. ^ Simonian 1999, pp. 231–232.
  31. ^ Simonian 1999, p. 232.
  32. ^ a b Muñoz 2013.
  33. ^ a b Expansión 2007.
  34. ^ a b c d Cano Sotomayor & Ramírez Camino 2014, p. 148.
  35. ^ a b c Proespa 2019, p. 73.
  36. ^ Cano Sotomayor & Ramírez Camino 2014, pp. 148–149.
  37. ^ Cano Sotomayor & Ramírez Camino 2014, p. 149.
  38. ^ Government of Aguascalientes 2007, p. 2.
  39. ^ La Jornada Aguascalientes 2010, p. 11.
  40. ^ Guzmán 2010, p. 10.
  41. ^ Dalton 1951, p. 38.
  42. ^ Pulido 1956, p. 125.

Bibliography

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