How a BU Researcher Found and Revived a Long-Lost Operatic Masterpiece
Cuban composer Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes’ opera El Caminante, rediscovered after more than a century, had its world (re)premiere at BU
David Guzmán (center) rediscovered Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes’ El Caminante—and performed in its revival performance. Here, he rehearses with BU’s Symphony Orchestra, alongside mezzo-soprano Juliette Kaoudji (CFA’26) (left) and soprano Michelle Johnson (CFA’07) (right).
How a BU Researcher Found and Revived a Long-Lost Operatic Masterpiece
Cuban composer Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes’ opera El Caminante, rediscovered after more than a century, had its world (re)premiere at Boston University
Excerpt
This article was originally published in The Brink on December 3, 2024, and features CFA community members David Guzmán, William Lumpkin, Allison Voth, Oshin Gregorian, Michelle Johnson (CFA’07), and Juliette Kaoudji (CFA’26). By Alene Bouranova. Photos by Cydney Scott
El Caminante, a long-forgotten Cuban opera, opens with a swell of sweeping, almost mournful strings. The music is evocative of some of the most iconic 20th-century scores (think Leonard Bernstein or Rodgers and Hammerstein)—so much so that you almost expect to hear the crackle of film underneath the soundscape. As the orchestra picks up the tempo, it’s hard to believe this music hasn’t been heard in over a century—that it lay forgotten until rediscovered and revitalized by a Boston University College of Fine Arts researcher.
Flutes trill above the rest of the music. Every once in a while, a Latin beat catches your ear. By the time the main vocalists come in, their soprano and mezzo-soprano weaving seamlessly around one another, it hits you: what you’re listening to is a masterpiece.
El Caminante premiered in Cuba in 1921. The one-act Spanish-language opera was one of five written by Cuban composer and author Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes. Unfortunately, the work was lost to history. Or it was, until David Guzmán, a BU College of Fine Arts assistant professor of music, voice, uncovered the piano-vocal score in Harvard University’s archives in 2020. Operas have two main scores: the piano and vocal score—sometimes referred to as the songbook—used for facilitating rehearsals, and the orchestral score, used for performances. Guzmán found the orchestral score in Cuba three years later.
This November, after 100 years hidden in the dark, the opera had its world (re)premiere, this time at BU’s Tsai Performance Center.
“The book was amazing,” says Guzmán, an opera tenor. “The music was so clever and well-written. But when I found the score, it just opened a world of possibilities with this opera.”
PARMA Recordings Partners with BU Opera Institute to Record and Release El Caminante
The live opera recording of El Caminante at Boston University’s Tsai Performance Center is to be released on PARMA’s GRAMMY®-winning Navona Records label.
“With the new recording from the BU Opera Institute of El Caminante we are experiencing a new kind of excitement, getting the chance to produce a recording of a previously unrecorded Cuban opera from the early 20th century, an era not usually known for undiscovered masterpiece,” said PARMA Senior Producer Brad Michel.