Guatimotzin
Guatimotzin | |
---|---|
Opera by Aniceto Ortega | |
Librettist | José Tomás de Cuéllar |
Language | Spanish |
Premiere | 13 September 1871 Gran Teatro Nacional, Mexico City |
Guatimotzin is an
Background and performance history
A romanticised account of the heroic but doomed defense of Mexico by its last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, Guatimotzin was one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native subject and to incorporate indigenous music into its score.[1]
The libretto in Spanish verse was written by José Tomás de Cuéllar, a well-known poet, playwright, and novelist and the editor of several Mexican periodicals, including La Linterna Magica and La Illustracion Potosina. His fictional works often had a spiritual element and dealt with themes from native Mexican culture.[5] When de Cuéllar became ill at one point, Ortega also worked on parts of the libretto.[2]
Guatimotzin premiered on 13 September 1871 at the Gran Teatro Nacional in Mexico City.
Principal roles
- Princess Malintzin (soprano) created by Ángela Peralta
- Cuauhtémoc (tenor) created by Enrico Tamberlik
- Hernán Cortés (bass) created by Louis Gassier.[10]
Notes and references
- ^ Grout (2003) p. 561
- ^ a b International Musicological Society (1993) p. 199
- ^ Werner (2001) p. 525
- ^ a b Stevenson
- ^ Bonaparte (1904) pp. 258-258. De Cuéllar also wrote under the pen name "Facundo".
- ^ Cambas (1880) p. 490. Benefit performances, where an opera's singer, conductor or composer received the box-office takings for a particular performance in addition to their salary, were a common practice in the 18th and 19th century opera world. For more, see Price et al. (1995) Chapter 3, Part II, "Recruitment and Salaries".
- ^ de Olavarría y Ferrari (1895) p.114. Riccardo Fontana (1840-1915) was a well-known Italian stage designer who was in Mexico at the time and designed several other productions for Peralta's opera company.
- ^ García Mora and Krotz (1988) p. 590; Fulton (2008) p. 29
- ^ Fulton (2008) pp. 27-29
- ^ The source for the premiere cast is Velázquez (1971) (p. 366). The French bass, Louis Nicolas François Gassier (born 30 April 1820 in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, died 18 December 1872 in Havana), was a member of Ángela Peralta's touring opera company. While in Mexico, he also sang Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula, Sir Tristan in Martha, and Mephistopheles in Faust.
Sources
- Bonaparte, Roland, Le Mexique au début du 20e siècle, C. Delagrave, 1904
- Cambas, Manuel Rivera, México Pintoresco, Vol. 1, La Reforma, 1880
- de Olavarría y Ferrari, Enrique, Reseña histórica del teatro en México, Volume 3, La Europea, 1895
- Fulton, Christopher, "Cuauhtémoc regained", Estudios de Historia Moderna y Contemporánea de México, No. 36, January–June 2008, pp. 5–47
- García Mora, Carlos and Krotz, Esteban, La Antropología en México: Panorama histórico, Volume 9, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1988. ISBN 968-6038-72-8
- Grout, Donald Jay and Williams, Hermine Weigel, A short history of opera, Columbia University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-231-11958-5
- International Musicological Society, Report of the International Musicological Society Congress, Vol. 1, Bärenreiter, 1993
- Price, Curtis Alexander et al., Italian Opera in Late Eighteenth-century London: The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1778-1791, Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-816166-2
- Stevenson, Robert (2001). "Ortega del Villar, Aniceto". In ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
- Velázquez, Guillermo Orta, Breve historia de la música en México, Librería de M. Porrúa, 1971
- Werner, Michael S., Concise encyclopedia of Mexico, Taylor & Francis, 2001. ISBN 1-57958-337-7