Transatlantic Arias

Early Opera in Spain and the New World

Gasta, Chad M.

Through current theories of ideology, propaganda and musical reception, Transatlantic Arias examines the development and impact of early opera in Spain and the Americas through close examination of the New World’s first three extant operas: Tomás de Torrejón’s Lima production of La púrpura de la rosa (1701), Domenico Zipoli’s Jesuit opera, San Ignacio de Loyola (ca. 1720), and a recentlydiscovered
indigenous opera from the Jesuit missions, the anonymous San Francisco Xavier (ca. 1720-1740). Together they highlight the urban and rural musical cultures of South America and demonstrate how opera is closely aligned with prevailing political and religious ideology as Spain
broadened its influence over the Americas. What emerges is a revealing portrait describing an astonishing literary and musical hybridization not found in other genres or in other places where differing cultures come into contact.
Transatlantic Arias shows how these operas represent the cohabitation and cross-cultural collaborative spaces shared by Europeans and Indians in the development and consolidation of opera, challenging what has been assumed about Spain’s one-way dominance in all its colonies.