page_title: Opera in Latin America
section_title: 20th century and contemporary opera
hierarchical_section_title: Opera in Latin America / 20th century and contemporary opera
caption_attribution_description: English: Ettore Panizza Español: Hector Panizza
context_page_description: The history of opera in Latin America dates back to at least the early 18th century. Opera arrived in Latin America as a consequence of European colonization. On October 19, 1701, La púrpura de la rosa premiered in Lima in the Viceroyalty of Peru, the first opera known to be composed and performed in the Americas. It is an opera in one act by Spanish composer Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco with a libretto by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and is the only surviving opera by Torrejón y Velasco. It tells the myth of the love of Venus and Adonis, which provoked Mars's jealousy and his desire for vengeance.Opera performances were performed also in the country of Mexico. It is within that nation that the first indigenous opera composers of Latin America emerged, with Manuel de Zumaya being considered the first and most important early opera composer. Outsider of Perú and Mexico, opera was slower to gain a foothold, and it wasn't until the early to mid-19th century that other nations in Latin America began producing their own opera composers.
context_section_description: Argentina
  In Argentina, opera developed with the massive European (mainly Italian) immigration at the beginning of the century and with the opening of the Teatro Colón in 1908 where most of those world premieres took place. The most influential Argentinian opera composers include Ettore Panizza (whose opera Aurora was commissioned for the Colón inaugural season and Bizancio from 1939), Felipe Boero (El Matrero from 1929 his most famous opera, also Tucumán 1918, Ariana y Dyonisos, 1920, Raquela, 1923 and Siripo, 1937), Juan José Castro (composer of Bodas de sangre and La zapatera prodigiosa, both after Federico Garcia Lorca's plays and Proserpina y el extranjero, 1952), Carlos López Buchardo (El sueño de Alma, 1914), Pascual De Rogatis (Huemac, 1916 and La novia del hereje, 1934), Eduardo Garcia Mansilla (La angelical manuelita,1917), Constantino Gaito (Petronio, 1919; Ollantay, 1926, La sangre de las guitarras), 1927, Floro Ugarte (Saika, 1920), Gilardo Gilardi (Ilse, 1923; La leyenda del urutaú, 1934), Athos Palma (Nazdah, 1924), Hector Iglesias Villoud (El Oro del Inca, 1953), Virtú Maragno and Alberto Ginastera composer of Don Rodrigo, Beatrix Cenci and Bomarzo.
  In recent years other Argentinean opera composers include Roberto Garcia Morillo (El caso Maillard, 1977) Mario Perusso (La voz del silencio), Claudio Guidi-Drei (Medea, 1973), Juan Carlos Zorzi (Antigona Velez, 1991 and Don Juan, 1993), Pompeyo Camps (La hacienda, 1987, Marathon, 1990 and La oscuridad de la razón, 1996), Gerardo Gandini (La ciudad ausente, 1995 and Liederkreis, 2000), Ástor Piazzolla (Maria de Buenos Aires) and Osvaldo Golijov (Ainadamar'’). In 2006 Centre for Experimentation (CETC) of Teatro Colón, proposed that national poet Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill work with the composer of his choice. He chose Oscar Edelstein who went on to make the script for "Eterna flotación: Los Monstruito’" from two poems of Fogwill, "Contra el Cristal de La Pecera de Acuario" (Against the Glass of the Aquarium) " and "El Antes de los Monstruito" from the book "Lo Dado", to transform them into a continuous discourse that functions as a dramatic text. The opera dealt with the presidency of Menem and the era of decadency, leading to the headline by music critic, Juan Carlos Montero, "The Poetic versus Social Degradation." 
  Brazil
  Important Brazilian opera composers in the first half of the 20th century include Heitor Villa-Lobos, the composer of operas such as Izath, Yerma, and Aglaia; and Camargo Guarnieri, composer of Um Homem Só and Pedro Malazarte. Contemporary Brazilian opera continues these avant-garde tendencies, as is the case with works like Olga by Jorge Antunes, A Tempestade by Ronaldo Miranda, O Cientista by Silvio Barbato, and "Tamanduá (The Anteater) – A Brazilian Opera" by Joao MacDowell, founder of the International Brazilian Opera Company (IBOC), a New York-based non-profit with a mission to create new repertoire based on collaboration of Brazilian and international artists.
  Cuba
  Opera has been present in Cuba since the latest part of the 18th century.
   Ecuador
  Recent Ecuadorian operas include Los Enemigos by Mesías Maiguashca, based on the story The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges; Manuela y Bolívar by Diego Luzuriaga; and the instrumental opera El árbol de los pájaros by Arturo Rodas.
  Mexico
  Another interesting group is those composers that have tried to develop a Yucatecan operatic tradition based on Mayan legends. These composers typically work in Mérida, Yucatán, and have been scorned by Mexican nationalist historians. These composers include Cosgaya Ceballos, Ríos Escalante, Ricalde Moguel, Rivera Velador, Cárdenas Samada, and Jebe Halfdan. In the first half of the 20th century, composer Julián Carrillo was an important figure in Mexican opera, along with composers similar to him, including Antonio Gomezanda, Juan León Mariscal, Julia Alonso, Sofía Cancino de Cuevas, José F. Vásquez, Arnulfo Miramontes, Rafael J. Tello, Francisco Camacho Vega, and Efraín Pérez Cámara. All of these composers have been relegated by official musical historiograph
caption: Argentine composer and conductor Ettore Panizza.
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