Opera Profile: ‘Partenope,’ Zumaya’s Lost Spanish Opera
One of the first composers born in the western hemisphere, Manuel de Zumaya (1678-1744) combined Baroque music with the sounds of colonial Spain. His lost opera, “Partenope,” was the first written in Italian to premiere in the New World. The work was first shown to audiences in Mexico City at the viceroy palace on May 1, 1711, making it the {…}