Spanish tenor
Manuel del Populo Vicente Rodriguez Garcia
(also known as
Manuel Garcia the Senior
; 21 January 1775 ? 10 June 1832) was a Spanish
opera singer
,
composer
,
impresario
, and singing teacher.
Biography
[
edit
]
Garcia was born in
Seville
,
Spain
, on 21 January 1775. In 1808, he went to
Paris
, with previous experience as a
tenor
at
Madrid
and
Cadiz
. By that year, when he appeared in the opera
Griselda
in Paris, he was already a composer of light operas. He lived in
Naples, Italy
, performing in
Gioachino Rossini
's operas. These included the premieres of
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
, in which he portrayed The Duke of Norfolk and
The Barber of Seville
, in which he portrayed the role of Count Almaviva. In 1816, he visited Paris and
London, England
. Between 1819 and 1823, he lived in Paris, and sang in operas such as
The Barber of Seville
,
Otello
, and
Don Giovanni
, often appearing at London's
King's Theatre
too. In the same period he presented new French-style operas of his own composition at the
Paris Opera
, the
Opera-Comique
and the
Gymnase-Dramatique
.
His elder daughter was the celebrated
mezzo-soprano
Maria Malibran
, and his second daughter was
Pauline Viardot
, a musician of consequence and, as a singer, one of "the most brilliant dramatic stars" of her time.
[1]
His son,
Manuel Patricio Rodriguez Garcia
, after being a second-rate
baritone
, became a world-famous
vocal pedagogue
, "the leading theoretical writer of Rossini vocal school".
[2]
In 1825, he and his company, four of eight of them Garcias, were recruited by a
New York
vintner Dominick Lynch Jr. (1786?1857), who had been encouraged by Italian opera librettist
Lorenzo Da Ponte
, then a professor of Italian at
Columbia College
, to introduce New Yorkers to Italian Opera. They staged the first performances (a total of about 80) of Italian opera in New York.
[3]
The Garcia family took all the main parts in performances of
The Barber of Seville
, with Garcia as Almaviva, his second wife
Joaquina Sitchez
(also called "la Briones") as Berta, Manuel Jr. as Figaro, and Maria as Rosina; Pauline was still very young at this time. Da Ponte particularly insisted on the company billing
Don Giovanni
, of whose libretto he was the author, and
Mozart
's opera was given its first American unabridged performance on 23 May 1826 in the presence of its librettist, with Garcia singing the title role, la Briones as Donna Elvira, Maria as Zerlina, and Manuel Jr. as Leporello.
[4]
They also performed in
Mexico
, and Garcia recounted in his memoirs that while on the road between Mexico and
Vera Cruz
, he was robbed of all his money by brigands.
Garcia had planned to settle in Mexico, but following political troubles, in 1829 he had to return to Paris, where he was once again very warmly welcome by the public. His voice, however, was being impaired by age as well as fatigue, and, never ceasing to compose, "he soon dedicated himself to teaching, for which he seems to have been specially gifted".
[5]
After having his last appearance on stage in August 1831, he died on 10 June the following year and was buried in
Pere Lachaise Cemetery
. His funeral oration was delivered by
Francois-Joseph Fetis
, who "honoured him above all as a composer, remarking that his best works remained unpublished ? as is still true today".
[5]
In 1836,
Franz Liszt
wrote a
Rondeau fantastique sur un theme espagnol
, S, 252, for piano, based on Garcia's song "El contrabandista".
According to James Radomski, "Garcia's dynamic perfectionism left its impact on three continents and his legacy, in the hands of his children, was carried into the 20th century".
[5]
Artistic features
[
edit
]
Despite his Spanish origins, Manuel Garcia became a paragon of the Italian-style tenor of the early 19th century. According to
John Potter
, it was mainly after coming to Italy in 1812 and meeting “the highly respected tenor and teacher
Giovanni Ansani
that he acquired the skills that would enable him to cope with Rossini. Ansani taught him how to project, and perhaps how to achieve the heavier sound that
Mozart
had recognized in all Italian singers as long ago as 1770, and presumably gave him the pedagogical rigour that would enable him to teach so authoritatively”.
[6]
In fact, his "voice was, according to
Fetis
, a deep tenor":
[7]
indeed, his singing had baritonal characteristics and has been presently referred to as
baritenore
, mainly in Italy.
[8]
Garcia possessed, however, an unusual vocal compass: although he was also able to cope with real baritone roles, the parts written for him by Rossini generally tend to be higher than those written for other baritonal tenors like
Andrea Nozzari
or
Domenico Donzelli
,
[8]
and, according to
Paolo Scudo
's testimony,
[9]
it was Garcia, and not
Gilbert-Louis Duprez
, the first singer able to utter the “C from the chest”. Given his artistic background, however, Garcia is not reported to have ever sung it in public.
Despite his range, he cannot be regarded as a
tenore contraltino
. He had, for instance, in his repertoire the role of Lindoro in
L'italiana in Algeri
, but, when he had to confront "the extremely high
tessitura
and the mainly syllabic writing of [his entrance aria] 'Languir per una bella', he transposed the aria down a
minor third
, performing it in C major instead of E flat".
[10]
Garcia was also able to master
falsetto
vocal phonation to such a point that, in a
tonadilla
of his,
El poeta calculista
, he could perform a duet with himself, where he sang both the tenor and the
soprano
parts.
[11]
Having an extravagant, even violent, personality and despotic attitudes even towards his children (who were also his pupils), he transported onto the stage something of his personal character, making his performances as
Otello
and
Don Giovanni
memorable, but he also succeeded in bridling his exuberance and in getting the style under perfect control, so that he could render his Mozart Count Almaviva a real, proud and elegant, grandee of Spain.
[11]
Salon operas
[
edit
]
In his final years, Garcia wrote five salon operas to showcase the talents of his students. In 2006 and 2015, the critical editions of two of these operas,
L’isola disabitata
and
Un avvertimento ai gelosi
, edited by Teresa Radomski, were published by A-R Editions.
L’sola disabitata
received its modern premiere at Wake Forest University in 2005, followed by its first European staging in Spain in 2010.
Un avvertimento ai gelosi
was performed in Spain in 2016.
[1]
The North American premiere of
Un avvertimento ai gelosi
took place at
Memorial University of Newfoundland
in 2016. A subsequent performance took place at the
Caramoor Summer Music Festival
in 2017, with Bel Canto Young Artists in the principal roles.
[2]
The cast featured Shirin Eskandani (Sandrina), Kyle Oliver (Berto), Joshua Sanders (the Count), Rob McGinness (Don Fabio), Madison Marie McIntosh (Ernesta), and Sean Christensen (Menico), with music director Timothy Cheung at the piano. This performance also was conducted based on the critical edition edited by Teresa Radomski.
Roles created and significant performances
[
edit
]
The following is a selected list (mainly drawn from the
L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia
) which intends to note significant moments in Manuel Garcia's career after his arrival in Italy. The symbol (*) indicates premieres, while the symbol (**) marks other notable performances, especially involving premieres in towns and theatres.
Role
|
Opera
|
Genre
|
Composer
|
Theatre
|
Performance date
|
Achille
|
Ifigenia in Aulide
|
tragedia-opera (2nd version) [performed in Italian]
|
Christoph Willibald Gluck
|
Naples,
Real Teatro San Carlo
|
15 August 1812 (**)
|
Achille
|
Ecuba
|
tragedia per musica
|
Nicola Antonio Manfroce
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
13 December 1812 (*)
|
Oitone
|
Gaulo ed Oitone
|
melodramma serio
|
Pietro Generali
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
9 March 1813 (*)
|
Califfo Isaun
|
Il califfo di Bagdad
|
opera comica
|
Manuel Garcia
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
8 November 1813 (*)
|
Egeo
|
Medea in Corinto
|
melodramma tragico (1st version)
|
Simon Mayr
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
28 November 1813 (*)
|
Endimione
|
Diana ed Endimione
|
cantata
|
Manuel Garcia
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
9 February 1814 (*)
|
Almaviva
|
Le nozze di Figaro
|
opera buffa
|
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
|
Naples,
Teatro del Fondo della Separazione
|
March 1814 (**)
[12]
|
Alceo
|
Partenope
|
festa teatrale
|
Giuseppe Farinelli
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
15 August 1814 (*)
|
Don Rodrigo
|
Donna Caritea, regina di Spagna
|
dramma serio per musica
|
Giuseppe Farinelli
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
16 September 1814 (*)
|
Dallaton
|
Tella e Dallaton, o sia La donzella di Raab
[13]
|
opera seria
|
Manuel Garcia
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
4 November 1814 (*)
|
Ermindo
|
La gelosia corretta
|
commedia per musica
|
Michele Carafa
|
Naples,
Teatro dei Fiorentini
di Napoli
|
carnival 1815 (*)
[14]
|
Enrico V
|
La gioventu di Enrico Quinto
|
opera
|
Ferdinand Herold
|
Naples, Teatro del Fondo della Separazione
|
5 January 1815 (*)
|
Ataliba
|
Cora
[15]
|
opera seria
|
Simon Mayr
|
Real Teatro San Carlo di Napoli
|
27 Marzo 1815 (*)
|
Norfolk
|
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
|
dramma per musica
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo
|
4 October 1815 (*)
|
Almaviva
|
Almaviva ossia L'inutile precauzione
(Il barbiere di Siviglia)
|
dramma comico
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
Rome,
Teatro della Torre Argentina
|
20 February 1816 (*)
|
Lindoro
|
L'italiana in Algeri
|
melodramma buffo
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
Paris,
Salle Louvois du Theatre-Italien
|
1 February 1817 (**)
|
Torvaldo
|
Torvaldo e Dorliska
|
dramma lirico semiserio
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
Paris, Salle Louvois du Theatre-Italien
|
21 November 1820 (**)
|
Giocondo
|
La pietra del paragone
|
melodramma giocoso (revision)
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
Paris, Salle Louvois du Theatre-Italien
|
5 April 1821 (**)
|
Otello
|
Otello
|
dramma tragico per musica (1st version)
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
Paris, Salle Louvois du Theatre-Italien
|
5 June 1821 (**)
|
Norfolk
|
Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra
|
dramma per musica
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
Paris, Salle Louvois du Theatre-Italien
|
10 March 1822 (**)
|
Florestan
|
Florestan ou Le conseil des dix
|
opera
|
Manuel Garcia
|
Paris,
Theatre de l'Academie Royale de Musique
|
26 June 1822 (*)
|
Osiride
[16]
|
Mose in Egitto
|
azione tragico-sacra (3rd version)
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
Paris, Salle Louvois du Theatre-Italien
|
20 October 1822 (**)
|
Ilo
|
Zelmira
|
dramma serio per musica (2nd version)
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
London,
King's Theatre in the Haymarket
|
24 January 1824 (**)
|
Agorante
|
Ricciardo e Zoraide
|
dramma per musica (1st version)
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
London, King's Theatre in the Haymarket
|
24 March 1824 (**)
|
Idreno
|
Semiramide
|
melodramma tragico
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
London, King's Theatre in the Haymarket
|
15 July 1824 (**)
|
Almaviva
|
Il barbiere di Siviglia
|
dramma giocoso
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
New York,
Park Theatre
|
29 November 1825 (**)
|
Otello
|
Otello
|
dramma tragico per musica (1st version)
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
New York, Park Theatre
|
7 February 1826 (**)
|
Narciso
|
Il turco in Italia
|
dramma buffo per musica (opera buffa, 2nd version)
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
New York, Park Theatre
|
14 March 1826 (**)
|
Don Giovanni
|
Don Giovanni
|
opera buffa
|
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
|
New York, Park Theatre
|
23 May 1826 (**)
|
Ramiro
|
La Cenerentola
|
melodramma giocoso
|
Gioachino Rossini
|
New York, Park Theatre
|
27 June 1827 (**)
|
Selected works
[
edit
]
The following lists are drawn from
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
(article: "Garcia, Manuel", by James Radomski), with possible details from different sources.
Performed
- La maja y el majo
[17]
(
tonadilla
, Madrid, 1798)
- La declaracion
(
tonadilla
, Madrid, 1799)
- El seductor arrepentido
(
opereta
, Madrid, 1802)
- Quien porfia mucho alcanza
(
opereta
, Madrid, 1802)
- El luto fingido
(
opereta
, Madrid, 1803)
- El criado fingido
(
opereta
, Madrid, 1804)
- El padrastro, o Quien a yerro mata a yerro muere
(Madrid, 1804)
- El poeta calculista
(monologue, Madrid, 1805)
- El cautiverio aparente
(
opereta
, Madrid, 1805)
- El preso
(monologue, Madrid, 1806)
- Los laconicos, o La trampa descubierta
(
opereta
, Madrid, 1806)
- Los ripios del maestro Adan
(
opereta
, Madrid, 1807)
- Il califfo di Bagdad
(
opera buffa
, Naples, 1813)
- Talla e Dallaton, o sia La donzella di Raab
(
opera seria
, Naples, 1814)
- Le prince d’occasion
(
opera-comique
, Paris, 1817)
- Il fazzoletto
(opera buffa, Paris, 1820)
- La mort du Tasse
(
tragedie lyrique
, Paris, 1821)
- La meuniere
(opera comica, Paris, 1821)
- Florestan, ou Le conseil des dix
(opera, Paris, 1822)
- Les deux contrats de mariage
(opera buffa, Paris, 1824)
- Astuzie e prudenza
(London, 1825)
- L'amante astuto
(comic opera in two acts, New York, 1825)
[18]
- Il lupo d'Ostenda, o sia L'innocente salvato dal colpevole
(New York, 1825)
- La figlia del aria
(semi-tragic opera in two acts, New York, 1826)
[19]
- La buona famiglia
(New York, 1826)
- El Abufar, ossia La famiglia araba
(Mexico City, 1827)
- Un'ora di matrimonio
(opera buffa, Mexico City, 1827)
- Zemira ed Azor
(Mexico City, 1827)
- Acendi
(Mexico City, 1828)
- El gitano por amor
(Mexico City, 1828)
- Los maritos solteros
(Mexico City, 1828)
- Semiramis
(Mexico City, 1828)
- Xaira
(Mexico City, 1828)
Unperformed (or privately performed)
- Un avvertimento ai gelosi
- Le cinesi
- Il finto sordo
- L'isola disabitata
- I tre gobbi
- I banditi, o sia La foresta pericolosa
- Don Chisciotte
(opera buffa in two acts)
[20]
- La gioventu d'Enrico V
- L'origine des graces
- Le tre sultane
- El Zapatero de Bagdad
Genealogy
[
edit
]
- Manuel Garcia
(1775?1832), singer, composer,
impresario
; married
Joaquina Sitches
(1780?1864)
- Manuel Garcia Junior
(1805?1906), singer, composer, singing teacher; married Cecile Maria "Eugenie" Mayer (1814?1880)
- Manuel Garcia (1836?1885)
- Gustave Garcia
(1837?1925), baritone and singing teacher; married Emily Matilda Ann Martorell (1835??)
- Alberto Garcia (1875?1946), baritone
- Eugenie Harouel (1840?1924)
- Marie Crepet (1842?1867)
- Maria Malibran
(1808?1836), singer; married Francois Eugene Malibran (1781?1836) (no children); married
Charles Auguste de Beriot
(1802?1870), composer, violinist
- Pauline Viardot
(1821?1910), singer, composer; married
Louis Viardot
(1800?1883)
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Notes
- ^
According to
Franz Liszt
, who also declared that, with her, the world had finally found a woman composer of genius (quotations from back-cover notes of Michael Steen's book
Enchantress of Nations: Pauline Viardot, Soprano, Muse and Lover
. Thriplow, Cambridge: Icon Books Ltd., 2007,
ISBN
978-1-84046-843-4
)
- ^
Celletti, p. 172
- ^
Susan T. Sommer
,
New York
, in Stanley Sadie (ed.),
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
, Grove (Oxford University Press), New York, 1997, III, p. 586.
- ^
Casaglia, Gherardo (2005).
"
Manuel Garcia
"
. L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia
(in Italian)
. To be more precise, there had been previous performances of both
Don Giovanni
and
Le nozze di Figaro
, "but in much shortened versions and in wretched English translations by
Henry Rowley Bishop
". Since the Garcia company lacked a suitable Don Ottavio, Da Ponte himself had to look for a local tenor to perform the role (Sheila Hodges,
Lorenzo Da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozart’s Librettist
, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 2002, p. 193,
ISBN
978-0299178741
).
- ^
a
b
c
Radomski,
Grove
, p. 347
- ^
Potter, p. 45
- ^
Radomski,
Grove
, p. 347. According to Radomski, "it is possible that [Garcia’s voice] was a baritone with a highly developed falsetto"; which seems however rather inconsistent with Caruselli and Celletti’s stating that Rossini's vocal writing for Garcia is usually higher-pitched than for other baritenors (cf. below)
- ^
a
b
Caruselli, p. 506; Celletti, pp. 165?166
- ^
Paolo Scudo was a major critic of the
Revue des Deux Mondes
? cf. Caruselli, II, p 398 (article: "Duprez")
- ^
Celletti, p 166, note 1 (translation by Frederick Fuller)
- ^
a
b
Caruselli, II, p. 506
- ^
Source: performance printed libretto,
Le Nozze di Figaro
, Dramma Giocoso in quattro Atti. Rappresentato in Napoli la Prima Volta Nel Real Teatro del Fondo Nel Mese di Marzo del 1814 /(la Musica e del Celebre Mozart). Napoli: Tipografia Largo del Castello, 1814 (cited by
Italianopera
? Libretti a stampa
)
- ^
Title so reported by Radomski,
Grove
(p. 346).
- ^
Source:
Italianopera.org
(accessed 16 October 2010)
.
- ^
It was, in fact, a rearrangement of the
dramma per musica
Alonso e Cora
, premiered at Milan's
La Scala
on 26 December 1803.
- ^
Jean Mongredien,
Le Theatre-Italien de Paris. Chronologie et documents
, Lyon, Symetrie, 2008, V:
1801-1831
, p. 11,
ISBN
978-2914373357
- ^
The score printed in 1973 (Madrid, ed. Jose Subira) and James Radomski's article in
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
, state the title as
El majo y la maja
. The present page reports the version later given by the 2008 critical edition by Juan de Udaeta: Manuel Garcia,
La maja y el majo; La declaracion; Quien porfia mucho alcanza; El poeta calculista
, Madrid, Iberautor/ICCMU, 2008,
ISMN
979-0-69219-033-2.
- ^
Libretto (1825):
The cunning lover. L'amante astuto. Opera comica. In due atti. Poesia del Signor Rosich. Musica del Signor Manuel Garzia
. New York: E.M. Murden (for the New-York Theatre) (accessible online in
books.google
).
Paolo Rosich
, the librettist of
L'amante astuto
, also sang the role of Anacleto at the New York premiere.
- ^
Paolo Rosich, the librettist of
La figlia del aria
, also sang the role of Timoteo at the New York premiere.
- ^
For this work cf.
(in Spanish)
Mengibar, Andres Moreno
Don Chisciotte de Manuel Garcia
, "Melomano La revista de musica clasica" (Orfeo Ediciones).
Sources
- (in Italian)
Caruselli, Salvatore (ed).
Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica
. Rome; Longanesi & C. Periodici S.p.A.
- (in Italian)
Celletti, Rodolfo
(1983):
Storia del belcanto
. Fiesole; Discanto Edizioni
- Potter, John
(2009).
Tenor, History of a voice
. New Haven and London; Yale University Press.
ISBN
978-0-300-11873-5
- Radomski, James (2000):
Manuel Garcia (1775?1832); chronicle of the life of a bel canto tenor at the dawn of romanticism
. Oxford; New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
ISBN
0-19-816373-8
- Radomski, James (1997): "Garcia, Manuel (del Populo Vicente Rodriguez)", in Stanley Sadie (ed.),
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
, Grove (Oxford University Press), New York. Vol. Two, pp. 345?347.
ISBN
978-0-19-522186-2
- Radomski, Teresa (Ed.) (2006):
L'isola disabitata
. Partitur. Middleton, Wisc.: A-R Ed., Serie: Recent researches in the music of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; 42.
ISBN
0-89579-594-9
;
ISBN
978-0-89579-594-6
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Wood, James
, ed. (1907).
The Nuttall Encyclopædia
. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
External links
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]
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