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to The Musical Quarterly
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OPERA BEGINNINGS
IN THE NEW WORLD
By ROBERT STEVENSON
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 9
priest survived but the Neapolitan viceroy at once ordered the youn
count home. The count's other personal servants at the moment inclu
Tomis de Torrej6n y Velasco, a many-faceted musician who was in 17
to distinguish himself by composing the first New World opera the s
of which survives. The same Torrej6n y Velasco may also be presume
from circumstances that will be mentioned below to have composed
music for such earlier productions at Lima as the breve coloquio
mzisica recitativa and the Coloquio en forma de Auto Sacramenta
1672 - even though the scores of these previous musico-dramatic pr
ductions cannot now be brought forward to clinch the proof.
Since the action of his surviving opera pivots around a hunt, it see
all the more interesting that his own father should have been Miguel
Torrej6n y Velasco (b. 1590), a huntsman employed by Philip IV
Baptized on December 23, 1644, at Villarrobledo (a small town so
hundred miles southeast of Madrid), he spent his earliest years in th
suburb lying on the northern outskirts of Madrid named Fuencarral.
about the age of twelve he became a page in the household of the yo
nobleman whom he was to accompany to Peru in 1667.9
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10 The Musical Quarterly
The years 1657-1661 were crucially important to th
opera. Calder6n, beginning with his "piscatory eclog
sirenas of 1657, moved in steady ascent towards the
that was sung throughout, La Ptirpura de la rosa
account Lope de Vega's stray experiment of 1629,
Calder6n's La Pzirpura de la rosa mounted at the Bue
Madrid on January 17, 1660, takes pride of place
opera to be sung throughout. On December 5, 166
aire matan was mounted at the same theater. Juan H
the first act of the latter survives.'0 Probably the fiftee
was later to write the eldest surviving New World op
his father a royal employee and his master a cour
principal interest before leaving for Peru was h
Madrid"), the youthful page engrossed in music c
escaped falling under the influence of the Calder
were of course for court festivities and shown befo
Madrid. At any event, he chose precisely Calder6n
rosa when at the age of 56 in faraway Peru he ca
own opera. How attentively he listened to Juan H
also be judged by anyone who will compare the t
score for Celos aun del aire with the complete score
de la rosa of 1701.
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 11
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12 The Musical Quarterly
1697, did the chapter at last restore his principal sala
600 pesos. On March 3, 1716, since he had now re
three-score-and-ten, the chapter exempted him from
ing. In his 80th year (July 19, 1724) the chapter
chapelmaster's salary to only 500 pesos.17
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,J~0~C
tA
Courtesy
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 13
In the same year that Lima Triumphante was published the n
viceroy vaunted his own literary talents with the libretto of a myth
logical opera celebrating the birth of the future Ferdinand VI, El me
escudo de Perseo. First presented in the patio of the viceregal pa
on September 17, this comedia harmonica was set to music howe
not by Torrej6n but rather by the Italian parvenu, Ceruti.2o Even
he performed the music of Dur6n and Torrej6n, and even if he s
enough adjusted to Lima by changing the spelling of his own na
to Cheruti and by marrying a resident (Maria de los Santos de Ja
April 18, 1736), his rise eventually spelled the end of Spanish mus
hegemony in colonial Peru. With his accession to the cathedral chape
mastership in August of 1728 the long line of masters with distinctiv
Spanish names abruptly ends."2
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14 The Musical Quarterly
chorus music. But even to have omitted 200 lines would have reduced
Calder6n's published libretto by only one-tenth.2'
He does perforce substitute a new loa-text. Calder6n's, like the usual
loa, had paid topical tribute to the sponsors of the occasion. At any
new presentation such merely topical matter could no longer be used.
Calder6n's had lauded the Prospero=Philip IV and the happy Ferdin-
and=Louis XIV who had married his Miranda=-Maria Teresa. For the
musical historian, the crucial lines in his loa come at the end: A
character who personifies the common folk, Vulgo, announces that the
fdbula to follow will tell the story of Venus and Adonis. The whole
play will be sung, he adds, in order to prove that Spain can compete
with other nations in this style of entertainment.2s Another character
interposes, but do not you risk the anger of a Spanish audience with
a whole play sung? Vulgo replies, not so, because this will be only a
small representacidn; and besides, he who never dares never achieves.
None of this forewarning continues any longer necessary in a loa to
be sung at a 1701 performance. Instead, Calliope, Terpsichore, and
Urania unite to hymn the new monarch's praises. In the four-part
choruses with which the 1701 loa ends, his benignity and justice form
the theme. But as is frequently the case in a loa, the singers curtsy at
the close, begging his sufferance for so humble a tribute.
Before Torrej6n's music can be appreciated by English-speaking
listeners the Venus and Adonis tale needs to be reviewed, as Calder6n
manages it. His Venus, like Shakespeare's, perishes on a sigh.
Ay, me, she cries, and twentie times, wo, wo,
And twentie echoes, twentie times crie so.26
His Adonis also suffers death on a boar's razor snout.
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 15
But the differences from Shakespeare's languorous account are
more significant than the likenesses. Calder6n begins with Venus
nymphs rushing about in distress. She is being chased by a wild
Offstage she cries for help and is answered by Adonis, also of
who rushes to her aid. He comes on bearing her in his arms. But
he learns who she is, he abruptly quits her. It was Amor who bro
disgrace upon his mother, Myrrha. Venus cannot so easily giv
up and starts in pursuit. She runs headlong into the suspiciou
Whom are you drooling after? he demands. Am I not your spouse
suffers the toils of war for your sake? But before he can force the
out of either her or her nymphs his sister Bellona summons
fresh combat. Venus next calls on Cupid to shoot the drowsing A
with an arrow. He awakes enraptured. But Mars soon return
catches Cupid eavesdropping and vows punishment. When
escapes he orders his soldiers to pursue. Suddenly out of a grotto
arise before Mars's eyes Fear carrying an axe, Suspicion a tele
Envy an asp, Ire a poniard. All four wear funereal black.
masked. Blackbearded Disappointment carrying shackles joins
He upbraids the god who conquers others but cannot control him
Through a mirror Mars sees Venus embracing Adonis and con
lating him upon the spoils of the chase. An earthquake swallo
Five Pains and the vision. The scene changes to Venus's gardens, w
Adonis reclines in her toils. Nymphs divided into two answe
choruses bandy the question, can Love improve my lot? Cupid ru
to warn them of Mars's approach. Adonis refuses to leave her
tected until she assures him that he cannot harm her. Mars does how-
ever storm against her. She casts her spell over him. Peasants rush on
fleeing from a mad boar who has reduced the countryside to terror.
The same Adonis who rescued Venus now vows to rid them of this
scourge if it cost him his life. Offstage he is gored to death. From his
blood there springs up a purple flower. In a final apotheosis he and
Venus ascend on opposite sides of the stage, she as the evening star, he
as the flower of sacrificial virtue.
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16 The Musical Quarterly
provide a kind of comic relief, a mixing of the subl
lous, not found in Italian Baroque librettos.
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 17
festal attire. Facing each other they hold between them a coat o
blazoned with three fleurs-de-lis. Except for the first four leav
are ruled on one side only with six staves to the page. Here and
the black notes have eaten through; and a few small worm-h
be found. But fortunately neither of these accidents interferes w
legibility of the music.
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18 The Musical Quarterly
Cupid, Venus, Bellona, the Five Pains, the four nym
lowlife characters - at the most four can double f
personifications and the nymphs).
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 19
Ex1(fo~s. 7 v - 10)
Mars
Ql-. (oi..7.- _u, - guna l - o o- i,(Que es+an li- be- ral
- ti - ma-cib~n... o-fen - di- da Se la- men-fa: yes.....~.
l r h .i.
Adonis
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20 The Musical Quarterly
second set of four by an interval three times the
occasion - as at Bellona's first entry - Torrej6
part at each repeat (meanwhile keeping the b
writes a set of ground bass variations.
Acp
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 21
bass-note itself. On rare occasions, he even inserts the accidental
the note it controls. Unlike Hidalgo, he writes remarkably supple
He makes the bass as well as the vocal line reflect changes of
When, for instance, Mars hears rustling in the branches, Torrej6n
an agile, lithe bass. When Mars stops Cupid who has been hid
those branches, the disguised Cupid stammers above a bass that
the same time to a block of half notes (see Ex. 3). Torrej6n
indulges in plays of imitation between the bass and the solo voice
to Hidalgo's homophonic style.
Even in the choral and ensemble numbers the instrumental bass -
Ex.4
(fols. 14v - 15 [unnumbered in choral appendix) fhrs
Chorus Nopue - deA mor Ha-cermidi - cha ma-yor. Bien pue-
. , . I . ... 1.' J l J - , , , I,, I.-
)m Ha-c0r,mi
Nymphs'
Choruses - di - c ,cer m e -i ma-yor Bien pue-
Tr ~~1 1 U~- er m ma-e.B'ien puae-
1 1 I No pue - deA - mor Ha-cermidi - cha ma-yor, ha-cer mi di-cha ma-yor. en pue-
.43 43:5)~
Cortinuo
IChorus,,l
deA - mor Ha.ce, mi di - cha ma-yor, midi - cha m.yor. No pue - deA mor
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22 The Musical Quarterly
though often keeping step with the lowest voice-part - carries its own
figures and preserves a certain degree of independence: as, for instance,
in the ensemble given in Ex. 4. The first group of nymphs declares
that nothing love can do would better my lot. The second contradicts.
The first again insists that my desire does not exceed the divine favor
I enjoy. The second and first join at the end in contradicting. To
dramatize their clash, Torrej6n simultaneously specifies a major chord
in one group against a minor chord (over the same root) in the other.
Accp+.
je- ro, Que val-ga mas toher-mo - so clue lo fie - ro, Te-mor quehoyen mi lu-
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 23
Btlona
6 Ij6i) T e~
(endling on D
ExK7 (fol48)
sfi f i,"'i#..:
. . ~ . . ,_.L J . II m "
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24 The Musical Quarterly
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Opera Beginnings in the New World 25
Ire sequence each other in nothing but black notes: while all a
them he spreads only whites.43
Two years later, Italian opera first invaded Spain. Another five years
later (1708) the first opera with music by an Italian composer was
mounted in Peru. Fortunate in its survival as the earliest New World
opera, La Ptirpura on the other hand had the misfortune to be com
posed in the last years before Bourbon taste expelled purely Spanish
drama sung throughout from court entertainment at Madrid. If Torre-
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