The Teatro Solís
150 Years of Opera, Concert and Ballet in Montevideo
Sales Date: 2003-07-22
528 Pages, 7.00 x 10.00 in
The first comprehensive history of the oldest major opera house in the Americas.
The Teatro Solís in Montevideo, Uruguay—established in 1856 and still operating—is the oldest theater in the Americas. Solís audiences thrilled to the lyricism of many of the great singers of the 19th Century, among them Adelina Patti, Romilda Pantaleoni, Gemma Bellincioni, and Enrico Caruso, accompanied by a 285-member company. Programs also featured orchestra and dance: the theater played host to dancer Vaslav Nijinksy's last stage performance and presented Puccini, Mascagni, Saint-Saëns and Richard Strauss. Susana Salgado's lively historical account—the very first of its kind—is enriched by anecdotes, reviews and illustrations. A complete narrative chronology of performances is indexed by performer and work, making this book a rare treat for opera buffs and an invaluable resource for scholars in the fields of music and dance history, American studies, and Latin American studies.
1516-1829: The Solis Tradition
1830-1856: The Italian Opera in the Americas and the Antecedents of the Teatro Solis
1839-1856: The Construction of the Teatro Solis
August 25, 1856: The Opening of the Teatro Solis
1857-1858: A Triumphant Enrico Tamberlick Opens the Second Solis Season - Anna Bishop: A Soprano To Remember - Artur Napoleao and Oscar Pfeiffer: Two First Piano Virtuosi
1859-1866: Anna de la Grange and Raffaele Mirate: Two Stars and Three Companies in the Same Season
1867-1869 Louis Moreau Gottschalk, First American Pianist and Composer
1870-1876: Carlotta Patti - Pablo de Sarasate - Two Rossini Premieres -A Great Basso Buffo: Alessandro Bottero-Luisa Gallo-Il Guarany
1878-1887 - The First Uroguayan Opera: Tomas Giribaldi's Parisima - Fracesco Tamagno's First Season at the Teatro Solis - More Debuts: Gemma Bellincioni and Roberto Stagno, Medea Mei and Nikolay Figner, Eva Tetrazzini
1888-1889 - Adelina Patti, Nineteenth-Century Superstar - Otello's Uroguayan Premiere: Romilda Pantaleoni and Roberto Sagno-Mattia Battistini, "The King of Baritones"
1890-1894 - Jose Oxilia: The Uruguayan Otello - Young Antonio Scotti's Falstaff - Edoardo Mascheroni: The First Notable Conductor - Seven Opera Premieres and a Famous Zarzuela
1865-1897 - La Boheme Premiere with Hariclea Darclee and Emilio De Marchi - Francesco Tamagno Singing Otello - An Ideal Werther: Fernando De Lucia - Edoardo Mascheroni Conducts Seven New Operas - Florencio Consantino's Debut• 1898-1899 - Montevideo and Its New Theaters - Luisa Tetrazzini - Two Bohemes and a Young Conductor: Giorgio Polacco - Regina Pacini - Luis Sambucetti's Suite d'orchestre
1900 - The Turn of the Century: From "La Belle Epoque" to Challenging Times -Opera as a Fashionable Social Event - Impresarios and Opera Business - Teatro Solis Carnival Masked Balls - Opera Programs and a Vanishing Collection
1901-1902 - Two New Stars at the Solis: Maria Barrientos and Giuseppe Anselmi - A Tosca to Remember with Hariclea Darclee and Edoardo Garbin - The Death of Maestro Luigi Preti, The Solis' First Conductor
1903 - The Rise of a Golden Age: The Arrival of Arturo Toscanini and Enrico Caruso
1904-1906 - Rosina Storchio and Madama Butterfly - The Opening of the Teatro Urquiza - Puccini Visits Montevideo - Toscanini Conducts the Teatro Solis Golden Jubilee - Salomea Kruszelnicka
1861-1918 - Glitter and Gaiety at Solis Operetta Seasons - The First American Musical: The Black Crook - An outstanding English Operetta Season - Lehar Works Close Half a Century of Frivlous and Nonchalant Operettas
1907-1914 - Leopoldo Mugnone Conducts Massenet and Wagner Uruguayan Premieres - An Overnight Star: Amelita Galli-Curci-Mascagni's Arrival - Isabeau-Celestina Boninsegna - Guglielmo Ratcliff- Parsifal - The Ballets Russes: Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina
1914-1916 - Titta Ruffo: "Not a Voice but a Miracle" - Tito Schipa - Elivira de Hidalgo - Rosa Raisa - Giovanni Martinelli - A Pagliacci to Remember - Riccardo Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini - Uruguayan Opera World Premiere: Cesar Cortinas' La ultima gavota - Camille Saint-Saens' Arrival and Performance - The French Season: Andre Massager and Xavier Leroux Conduct Their Operas - Ninon Vallin
1917 - A Unique Performance: Artur Rubenstein and Vaslav Nijinsky - Ernest Ansermet and a New Season of the Ballets Russes - New Voices: Fanny Anitua and Marcelo Urizar - Uruguayan World Premiere: Cesar Cortinas' La sulamita-Gino Marinuzzi Conducts Puccini's La rondine Premiere
1918-1922 - Beniamino Gigli and Claudia Muzio - Lucien Muratore - Four Uruguayan Premieres: Madame Sans-Gene, Monna Vanna, Fedra, and Le roi de Lahore - Anna Pavlova- Recitals: Yolanda Mero, Frances Nash, Edouard Risler, Artur Rubenstein, and Ricardo Vines - Feliz Weingartner and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
1923-1928- Richard Strauss Conducts Elektra and the Vienna Philharmonic - Debut of Nine Celebrated Singers - "A Gentleman of the Stage": The Baritone Vicor Damiani -Two Premieres: Boris Godunov and La cena delle beffe - Beethoven Centennial Concerts
1929-1930 - A Russian Opera Season-Bidu Sayao and Jan Kiepura - Rosette Anday's Carmen-Ottorin Respighi Conducts and Plays His Works - Guiomar Novaes - Wanda Landowska - Elizabeth Schumann - Jaques Thibaud – Feodor Chaliapin - The Creation of the SORDRE
1931-1955 - Solis Versus SODRE: The Struggle for Survival - Lily Pons-The "Soler Miracle"- the Centro Cultural de Musica - An Impressive Porgy and Bess
1956-1984 - The Teatro Solis Centennial - Political Turmoil and the Fall of the Cultural life - The Burning of the SODRE - From a Military Dictatorship to Democracy
EPILOGUE: Opera, Conert, and Ballet on the Teatro Solis Stage- The Begnning of a New Era - Facing the Future
Chronology
Artists who Performed at the Teatro Solis
Musical Worlds Performed at the Teatro Solis
Instrumental Ensembles that Performed at the Teatro Solis
Vocal Ensembles that Performed at the Teatro Solis
Ballet Companies that Performed at the Teatre Solis
Notes
SUSANA SALGADO is a consultant to the Library of Congress for Iberian and Latin American music. Prior to leaving Uruguay, she was Research Professor and Chair of Uruguayan Music in the Department of Musicology at the University of Uruguay in Montevideo. Author of several books, she contributed to scholarly publications, including five Grove dictionaries (Opera, Music 1980/2001, Women Composers, and American Composers). E. THOMAS GLASOW is the editor of Opera Quarterly. JULIO MARÎA SANGUINETTI is the former President of Uruguay.
"Salgado's entertaining and very human narrative helps attest to the role of the Solis as a major music theater in the Western Hemisphere. Interesting tidbits and facsimiles of posters, program covers, and portraits add to the book's appeal. The appendixes of performances arranged by year, artist, and titles/composer are also extremely useful.... highly recommended for all music or Latin American culture/history collections."
~Library Journal
"I consider this book as filling a very badly needed gap in our knowledge of history and music, not only in Montevideo, but in all of South America.""
~Tom Kaufman, author of Annals of Italian Opera
"This is a reference book that can be read cover to cover, and as such, a rarity. Its style is flowing, easily accessible, and entertaining. Without any doubt this is a pioneering work that researchers will find indispensable."
~Andrew Farkas, author of Enrico Caruso: My Father and My Family (with Enrico Caruso, Jr)
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