/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-URUGUAY:
Reviving Classical Music Splendour
Raúl Pierri
MONTEVIDEO, Sep (IPS) - In the last few months, the classical music
scene in Uruguay seems to have awakened from a long slumber, and operas
like "La Bohème" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini are raising it from
the ashes in which it was left by a 12-year dictatorship, repeated
economic crises and official neglect.
The capital, Montevideo, is trying to recover the prestige it enjoyed for
decades, when it was one of the essential stops in South America in
tours by world-famous artists, along with Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest
city, and Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The passion for classical music and theatre in Uruguay, a small South
American country of 3.2 million, has been strong since 1856, when the
impoverished newly independent nation, in poor shape after years of war,
nevertheless decided to build what was at the time South America's
premier opera house: the Solís Theatre.
The inauguration of the Solís put Uruguay in the vanguard of the
international opera scene starting in the late 19th century, and its
opera seasons could be counted among the world's best, said journalist
and music critic Barret Puig, who writes for the weekly newspaper
Búsqueda.
"In fact, 'La Bohème' opened in Italy in February 1896 and played in
Uruguay in August of that same year. That is really something, since
there were no planes or electronic communications like today," Puig told
IPS.
Puccini himself visited Montevideo in August 1905, and watched a
performance of his opera "Tosca" in the Solís Theatre.
The good times continued in the first few decades of the 20th century,
under the administration of the Official Broadcasting, Television and
Entertainment Service (SODRE), a government agency.
In the 1930s, distinguished Italian director Lamberto Baldi became the
conductor of the recently created Sodre Symphonic Orchestra (OSSODRE).
Thanks to his strong ties to Europe and the rest of the Americas, he
brought to Montevideo the world's leading conductors and composers.
These included Igor Stravinsky of Russia, Ottorino Respighi of Italy,
Heitor Villa-Lobos of Brazil, Manuel María Ponce of Mexico, Aaron
Copland of the United States and Paul Hindemith of Germany.
The splendour continued until the late 1940s, with visits to Uruguay by
Italian opera greats like tenors Enrico Caruso and Beniamino Gigli and
baritone Tito Gobbi.
Others who performed at the Solís in different periods were French
actress Sarah Bernhardt, British-born U.S. actress Vivien Leigh, Russian
dancer Anna Pavlova, U.S. dancer Isadora Duncan, Polish pianist Arthur
Rubinstein and guitarrist Andrés Segovia of Spain.
During World War II, many orchestra directors fleeing Nazism settled in
the Americas, which gave a boost to symphonic music in Uruguay, which was
visited by Albert Wolf, Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch of Germany, among
others.
In the 1950s, after a long absence, Baldi once again became director of
the OSSODRE, breathing new life into the orchestra, although times of
crisis lay not far ahead as economic conditions began to steeply decline
in this country known at the time as the "Switzerland of the Americas".
The final blow came on Sept. 18, 1971, when a fire blazed through the
Sodre auditorium.
Many believed that the theatre would be reopened within a relatively
short time. But they were mistaken.
Classical music in Uruguay plunged into a dark period, aggravated by the
1973-1985 military dictatorship, which forced many intellectuals and
artists to flee into exile. The country lost many of its artists, and
opera practically disappeared for a number of years.
Timid steps began to be taken once democracy was restored. A downtown
movie theatre was renovated and became the new Sodre auditorium -
although it was much smaller than the original one - and foundations
were created to rescue the classical music scene.
"Long lines of people queueing up for the opera began to be seen once
again, and opera season opened, even though it only involved two
different operas a year," said Puig.
By then, the "new" Solís Theatre was severely rundown and at serious
risk of collapse or fires.
"It was full of rugs, there was no orchestra pit and the orchestra was
squeezed into where the first four rows of seats had been. It was a real
mess. The magnificent sound of a great opera would never be possible
there," the director of the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra, Federico
García Vigil, told IPS during a rehearsal of "La Bohème".
Classical music concerts began to be held in places with even more
unsuitable acoustics, like meeting rooms in hotels, public parks or the
installations of the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay.
Nevertheless, it was in this period that the "three tenors" - Luciano
Pavarotti from Italy and Plácido Domingo and José Carreras from Spain -
visited Uruguay, separately. All three concerts were held on open-air
stages.
In 1999, the Montevideo city government decided to close the Solís
Theatre for renovation, a process that was completed last year. The
reopening was an event of great importance for the entire country.
There seems to be a consensus that, with a strong cultural policy,
classical music in Uruguay could recover part of its lost splendour
thanks to the reopening of the Solís.
"Sometimes buildings or great works can generate that. We are not just
anywhere; we are in a very important, prestigious theatre," said García
Vigil.
In August, the stage of the newly remodelled Solís was graced by
outstanding international figures like Argentine-Israeli pianist and
conductor Daniel Barenboim, with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra made
up of young Arab and Jewish musicians, and Indian conductor Zubin Mehta
with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Israel.
The reopening of the theatre has also brought new hopes to a generation
of young Uruguayan singers who, after finishing their training, were
forced to leave their country as there was no longer an opera season.
A number of them have made a name for themselves abroad, and have
performed in the world's leading concert halls, like the Metropolitan
Opera House in New York and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy.
Baritone Federico Sanguinetti, 38, belongs to that generation. He is in
the cast of "La Bohème" and says he is happy to be able to stop and sing
in his own country in the midst of his constant tours in neighbouring
Argentina and Brazil.
"It's like a fairy tale," he told IPS. "To be able to sing in our own
country doesn't seem real to those of us who had to become emigrants.
Now we can perform two or three operas here a year, in a country that
has always had a strong love for classical music."
(END/2005)
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