With Walter A. Clark, Patricia Kleinman, Molly Nelson-Haber & Anna Tonna
Moderated by Isabel Pérez Dobarro
October 13th, 2022 (2:00-3:30pm Boston / 20:00-21:30 Madrid)
Online via Zoom | RSVP: https://bit.ly/RSVP-Observatorio or info-observatory@fas.harvard.edu
This session––this year’s contribution to Harvard's Worldwide Week by the Observatorio––will analyze the key role played by the García family in the introduction and dissemination of the European opera repertoire in the United States during the 1820s, thus establishing a powerful bond between between the two continents. The panel will address the most significant aspects of this artistic interaction between the U.S. and this multifaceted Spanish family from both a musicological and interpretive perspective. The Garcías, headed by the Sevillian tenor Manuel del Pópulo Vicente García and his daughter María Malibrán, not only introduced large-format opera and the music of popular Spanish tradition to American soil, but also their vocal technique, which has been passed down as a symbol of quality through subsequent generations to the present day. The event will also feature the world’s first recording of a work by María Malibrán as well as an aria from Manuel del Pópulo Vicente García's opera, L'amante astuto, thanks to the generous collaboration of Professor James Radomski.
The panel––moderated by Isabel Pérez Dobarro, renowned international concert pianist, researcher, and Visiting Professor at the London Performing Academy of Music––will be made up of experts in the fields of music and opera from both sides of the Atlantic: Walter A. Clark, full profesor of Musicology at the University of California, Riverside; Patricia Kleinman, musicologist, as well as founder and director of Proyecto CompositorAs and member of the Sociedad Española de Musicología; Molly Nelson-Haber, musicologist and author currently working on the corrective biography of María Malibrán based on her unpublished letters; and Anna Tonna, mezzosoprano, focused on vocal repertoire of the Hispanic world, and recognized for her interpretation of Rossini.
Language: English