The interest for new operas in Europe coexisted with an avid readership of musical magazines, such as the “Revue musicale”, a weekly musical publication founded by Fétis in 1827. Aiming to provide a comprehensive look at music trends, theory, and criticism, and with a circulation of approximately twelve hundred copies per week, the publication catered to musicians, composers, musicologists, and aficionados. The publication played a significant role in shaping the contemporary musical discourse. A perusal of its pages reveals the breadth of its coverage, and the brilliance of its contributors, who included Berlioz, Wagner, and Fauré. It evidenced the depth of its analysis about the intricacies of musical composition, trends, styles, and the musical happenings in Europe. The Revue musicale revealed the passionate landscape of varying musical tastes, the strong opinions about this or that composer, or about the differing schools of composition.  Regular Parisian newspapers also paid due attention to the musical events in the city. Musicians were the subject of fabulous caricatures, demonstrating the interest of the audience in musical matters.

The public followed their favorite stars and consumed the musical offerings with fruition. Instrumental virtuosi, like rock stars, travelled the globe playing to adoring audiences, while legendary singers provoked no less wild reactions in the audience with their ability to engage the imaginations of the listeners. The appeal of the telluric Maria Callas, for example, of whom recordings and videos exist, is a Twentieth century example of the frenzy and emotion that could be brought about by the performances of legendary singer Maria Malibran, who, according to the biography by Countess Merlin, is said to have mastered the nearly impossible art of singing while crying. Not since Callas has a singer possessed the power to ignite such passion in the audience.

(And we must ask ourselves what is preventing such a singular phenomenon from appearing in the opera world).

The appetite for new music in the 19 century was additionally supported by the prevalence of a wide range of aficionados of different levels of accomplishment, many of them with no desire for stardom but guided solely by a genuine interest to partake of the art of music.  Musical and literary entertainment dominated gatherings in the aristocratic salons of Paris in the 1830’s and 1840’s and trickled down to the more modest drawing rooms of the bourgeois. Pianos were ubiquitous. They served to popularize the latest operas in a variety of arrangements. Publishing houses did their part in satisfying the interest for new works, while traveling virtuosos pushed the limits of technique with paraphrases of this or that new opera. 

Arch-virtousi Liszt and Thalberg, in their legendary pianistic duel of 1837 at the residence of Princess Belgioioso, went into battle brandishing cascades of arpeggios and heroic octaves. It is no wonder that Thalberg entered the joust with his imposing “Fantaisie sur des thèmes de Moïse, Op 33”, while Liszt attacked with his gargantuan “Grande fantaisie sur des motifs de Niobe by Pacini, S.419”. The themes of the operas were surely there as the basis but they took a backseat to the artistry of the reigning virtuosi, each adored or decried by the opposing factions.

Alas, one can hope to fathom the atmosphere of the great Parisian soirées, such as those of the celebrated Countess Merlin, the Cuban French aristocrat considered the Queen of the Parisian salons. Her residence was frequented by a pleiad of luminaries: Chopin, Rossini, Liszt, Madame Rachel, to name but a few. In her book SALONS OF the Past, la Comtesse de Bassanville remarks:

“At the beginning of the July monarchy, one of the most fashionable salons was that of the Countess Merlin, a kind, gracious, and attractive woman who possessed all that Paris contained of illustrations of all kinds, but especially in music; because her concerts were famous throughout Europe, and a musician did not come to us without being obliged to present himself/herself at first to her to receive a passport of celebrity”.

It was Countess Merlin, Mercedes Jaruco by her Cuban name, who first championed the career of Maria Malibran, convincing her close friend Giacomo Rossini to feature her in one of his works in a concert at her residence.  Mercedes was herself an outstanding singer in her own right. She had been a student of tenor and composer Manuel Garcia. Mercedes performed only in charity concerts, mainly in her residence. After Maria’s untimely death, it fell to Mercedes to write a biography of the legendary Maria Malibran.

Manuel del Popolo Garcia, in turn, was the epitome of the bel canto tenor. A glance at the number of roles he mastered and at their huge variety in tessitura, cannot cease to amaze (Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia). From his salon operas, The Opera Atelier has chosen L’Isola disabitata to honor the great Manuel García.

The panorama we are presented with today is quite different. A dwindling interest in classical music and its virtual absence in popular culture, pose arduous challenges.  The myriad voices vying for attention, and the prevalence of electronic devices, provide a distraction in direct competition with live performances. While there is still interest in new operas, the landscape is dominated by the established canon of operatic masterpieces.  Many companies prioritize well-known works to attract audiences. At the same time, there is a growing movement to support contemporary composers and innovative productions, fueled by initiatives to diversify the repertoire and engage new audiences. The Metropolitan Opera is shifting in that direction. The appetite for new operas often coexists with a strong loyalty to traditional favorites, reflecting both a desire for innovation and an appreciation for established classics.

While the amateur movement and the era of musical salons that prevailed in the nineteenth century have all but disappeared, The Opera Atelier will stimulate our imagination with art salon reenactments. Art salons provided the framework for stimulating conversation, and the kind of intellectual and artistic exchange that flourished in Europe and the Americas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Nowhere were soirées more exciting than in the 1830s-1840s Paris, where the public witnessed the prodigious creativity of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Liszt, and Chopin, amidst the proliferation of elegant salons. The Opera Atelier will continue to celebrate the art salon with recreations of soirées such as the Liszt vs. Thalberg pianistic duel, or theatrical recreations, such as “A Night in Paris with Chopin and Malibran”, a soirée circa 1840 based on contemporary historical sources, accented by period dress, and featuring musical and literary selections, after an original script by The Opera Atelier. “Clash of Titans” is the recreation of the Liszt-Thalberg pianistic duel. An iteration of this project can be watched on the YouTube channel of The Opera Atelier under the name: “Clash of Titans”. Another multidisciplinary project, "The Valkyrie of the Piano" is a play based on the life and times of the great Venezuelan pianist Teresa Carreño. Projects of a similar format will be presented this upcoming season.

The Opera Atelier, furthering its mission to advance the art of opera, presents a lineup of multidisciplinary productions that promises to engage the mind and the heart.

The 2024-25 Season opens with a Season Presentation at the Sala Santa Cecilia, followed by The Night and the Moon, a double bill in which opera and dance rendezvous in Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos featuring Patricia Arcadí, followed by the choreography The Night and the Moon, by master choreographers/dancers Carmen Werner and Leyson Ponce. The work is inspired by the poetry of Federico García Lorca.

The season continues with Memory Machines, a musical play that explores nostalgia, interpreted by celebrated soprano Sandra López and pianist Daniel Daroca, and later with L’isola disabitata, one of the salon operas by Manuel García, and the comic opera Frau Haydn in Trouble, by Daniel Daroca.

The season will conclude with Sor Juana: The Inner Fortress, a new work in honor of the trailblazing Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the most important intellectual of the Colonial Period in Latin America.

~ Other Multidisciplinary Projects:

As in prior seasons, a series of projects and educational activities will run parallel to TOA’s major productions. This year's emphasis will be on the Garcia Family and its role in the development of the bel canto style.

Additional activities will include concerts and lecture recitals at smaller venues such as Sala Santa Cecilia, and the Coral Gables Congregational Church. Outreach performances will include free Miami-Dade Public Library programs, local schools as well as senior residences in communities such as Little Havana, Hialeah, and West Miami

Key artistic personnel include Artistic Director Jorge Arcila, Music Director Daniel Daroca, stage director and production director Xiomara Ponce, and virtual scenographer Jacqueline Solorzano.

Educational milestones will be the seventh edition of The Opera Atelier’s signature programs Opera Adventures, and the MOZ-Art Program. TOA celebrates the achievements of our talented students now attending Manhattan School of Music, New York University, and UM Frost School, while younger ones are attending New World School of the Arts, Miami Arts, Zelda Glazer, and other local performing and magnet schools.

We take this opportunity to thank the Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Division of Arts and Culture, the City of Coral Gables, and the City of Miami Beach, the Knight Foundation, the Miami Foundation, and the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation for their support of this and past seasons and programs in which the artists, and the audience come together once more to inspire each other.

 
See you at the opera!


Daniel Daroca
Musical Director
The Opera Atelier, Inc.​