{"id":116785,"date":"2024-12-05T10:23:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T15:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=bu-article&p=116785"},"modified":"2025-01-07T13:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T18:01:19","slug":"bu-researcher-found-lost-operatic-masterpiece","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2024\/bu-researcher-found-lost-operatic-masterpiece\/","title":{"rendered":"How a BU Researcher Found and Revived a Long-Lost Operatic Masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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David Guzm\u00e1n (center) rediscovered Eduardo S\u00e1nchez de Fuentes\u2019\u00a0El Caminante<\/em>\u2014and performed in its revival performance. Here, he rehearses with BU\u2019s Symphony Orchestra, alongside mezzo-soprano Juliette Kaoudji (CFA\u201926) (left) and soprano Michelle Johnson (CFA\u201907) (right).
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Cuban composer Eduardo S\u00e1nchez de Fuentes\u2019 opera\u00a0El Caminante<\/em>, rediscovered after more than a century, had its world (re)premiere at Boston University<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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December 5, 2024<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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This article was originally published in The Brink<\/a><\/em> on December 3, 2024, and features CFA community members David Guzm\u00e1n<\/a>, William Lumpkin<\/a>, Allison Voth<\/a>, Oshin Gregorian<\/a>, Michelle Johnson<\/a> (CFA\u201907), and Juliette Kaoudji (CFA\u201926). By Alene Bouranova. Photos by Cydney Scott<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Caminante<\/em>, 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)\u2014so much so that you almost expect to hear the crackle of film underneath the soundscape. As the orchestra picks up the tempo, it\u2019s hard to believe this music hasn\u2019t been heard in over a century\u2014that it lay forgotten until rediscovered and revitalized by a Boston University College of Fine Arts researcher.
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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\u2019re listening to is a masterpiece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Caminante<\/em> premiered in Cuba in 1921. The one-act Spanish-language opera was one of five written by Cuban composer and author Eduardo S\u00e1nchez de Fuentes. Unfortunately, the work was lost to history. Or it was, until David Guzm\u00e1n<\/a>, a BU College of Fine Arts assistant professor of music, voice, uncovered the piano-vocal score in Harvard University\u2019s archives in 2020. Operas have two main scores: the piano and vocal score\u2014sometimes referred to as the songbook\u2014used for facilitating rehearsals, and the orchestral score, used for performances. Guzm\u00e1n found the orchestral score in Cuba three years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This November, after 100 years hidden in the dark, the opera had its world (re)premiere, this time at BU\u2019s Tsai Performance Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe book was amazing,\u201d says Guzm\u00e1n, an opera tenor. \u201cThe music was so clever and well-written. But when I found the score, it just opened a world of possibilities with this opera.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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