Andina: An opera by Chicago’s first Hispanic composer
*What a wonderful story. There are roots here, culture and happenstance. Regardless of all the talk about immigrants and immigration, Latinos are not new to the U.S., and have contributed to American art and culture for many generations. VL
By Teresa Puente, Chicanísima
Two years ago in a box in his aunt’s basement, Arlen Parsa found a musical score.
Crumpled and faded, it was an opera written by his late great-grandfather in the early 1930s.
[pullquote]”… believed to be the first Hispanic composer in Chicago. Parsa found documentation that one of his great-grandfather’s songs was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the early 1930s.”[/pullquote]Eustasio Rosales came to the U.S. from Colombia as a young man. Parsa had heard stories that his great grandfather was a musician.
But he didn’t know he had written an opera. Now the score found in a basement will have its world premiere in Chicago.
“For me this is a piece of my heritage,” Parsa said.
Called, “Andina,” the opera tells the story of a girl from the mountains who falls in love with two men, one rich and one poor. It will be performed at the Anthenaeum theater Friday night.
Click HERE to read the full story.
[Photo courtesy Arlen Parsa/Chicanísima]
