Enric Granados, Born July 27, 1867, Composed Goyescas as His Fourth Opera

Summary: Catalan composer and pianist Enric Granados, born July 27, 1867, composed Goyescas as his fourth opera and attended its world premiere at Met Opera.

Concert d’Enric Granados al Liceu, ca. 1911-1912 oil on canvas portrait by Catalan modernist painter Lluïsa Vidal i Puig (April 2, 1876-Oct. 22, 1918): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Catalan composer and pianist Enric Granados, born July 27, 1867, composed Goyescas as the fourth of his four operas and attended its world premiere Jan. 28, 1916, at the Metropolitan Opera.

American composer, conductor and pianist Ernest Henry Schelling (July 26, 1876-Dec. 8, 1939) encouraged Granados to revisit his popular piano suite, Goyescas, Op. 11, as an opera. Subtitled Los majos enamorados (The Gallants in Love), the piano suite took inspiration from paintings by Spanish Romantic painter Francisco Goya (March 30, 1746-April 16, 1828). Granados premiered the suite’s Book I March 11, 1911, at the Palau de la Música Catalana (Palace of Catalan Music) in Barcelona. He premiered the suite’s Book II April 2, 1914, at Salle Pleyel in Paris, France.

Granados scored his one-act, three-tableaux opera to six of Goya’s paintings. Valencia-born lyricist and writer Fernando Periquet y Zuaznabar (1873-1940) is credited with the Spanish libretto.

The Metropolitan Opera double-featured its world premiere of Goyescas with a performance of Pagliacci by Neapolitan composer Ruggero Leoncavallo (April 23, 1857-Aug. 9, 1919). Italian opera maestro Gaetano Bavagnoli (1879-1933) conducted Goyescas and Pagliacci.

Goyescas was directed by Jules Speck, the Metropolitan Opera’s stage manager for French and Italian operas from 1908 to 1917. The production’s sets were designed by Italian painter and scenic designer Odoardo Antònio Rovescalli (Dec. 21, 1864-Dec. 21, 1936).

The world premiere marked the Metropolitan Opera debut of the production’s costume designer, G.B. Santoni. The Metropolitan Opera online archives notes: “The costumes were inspired by the paintings of Goya.”

American soprano Anna Fitziu (April 1, 1887-April 20, 1967) made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the principal role of Rosario, a high-born lady. Italian operatic tenor Giovanni Martinelli (Oct. 22, 1885-Feb. 2, 1969) sang Fernando, a captain in the Royal Guard (el capità de la Guàrdia Reial), who is Rosario’s lover.

The Metropolitan Opera online archives notes: “Goyescas was the first opera performed in Spanish by the company and it received five performances this season.” The fifth performance of the opera’s world premiere season took place March 6, 1916. The Metropolitan Opera has not revived Goyescas since the 1915-1916 season.

Tragically, the Catalan composer and his wife, Amparo Gal y Lloberas (Dec. 7, 1892-March 24, 1916), died 18 days after the world premiere season’s last performance at the Metropolitan Opera. On Friday, March 24, 1916, the couple boarded the SS Sussex in Folkestone, a port town on the English Channel in Kent, South East England. The French-owned (since 1914), British-built (1896) and formerly British-owned ferry was destined for Dieppe, Normandie region, northern France. During the crossing, SM UB-29, a German U-boat (Unterseeboot, “underseaboat”) torpedoed SS Sussex near Boulogne-sur Mer. The ferry sustained severe damages, with the bow forward of the bridge blown off.

From a lifeboat, Enric Granados saw his wife struggling in the water. He jumped from the lifeboat to save her. They both drowned.

Enric and Amparo left behind six children: Eduard (July 28, 1894-Oct. 2, 1928); Soledad “Solita” (April 4, 1896-April 2, 1936); Enric (July 12, 1897-July 27, 1953); Víctor (1899-1972); Natàlia (July 23, 1900-April 14, 1988); and Francisco “Paquito” (1902-1972). Eduard Granados Gal, who became a composer, died from typhus two months after his 34th birthday. Enrique Granados Gal was Spain’s 100 meter-freestyle swimming champion in 1923 and competed in the Olympics in 1920 and again in 1924 in water polo.

On Sunday, May 7, 1916, six weeks two days after the deaths of their parents, the Metropolitan Opera gave a “Benefit Concert for the Orphan Children of Enrique and Amparo Granados.” The program included five pieces by Enric Granados. Austrian-born violinist Friedrich “Fritz” Kreisler (Feb. 2, 1875-Jan. 29, 1962) accompanied Irish tenor John McCormack (June 14, 1884-Sept. 16, 1945) on the piano for “The Goddess in the Garden.” Fritz Kreisler on violin and Catalan cellist Pau Casals (Dec. 29, 1876-Oct. 22, 1973) on piano performed “Danza Española.” Accompanied by Pau Casals on the piano, Catalan coloratura soprano Maria Barrientos (March 10, 1883-Aug. 8, 1946) sang “Amor y odio”; “El majo discreto”; “Elegia eterna.”

The Musical Courier, a late 19th- to mid-20th-century American music trade magazine, reported: “There was practically no expense and the entire proceeds, about $11,000, will go to the worthy object for which they are intended.” The six performers did not charge for their appearances.

The takeaway for Enric Granados, born July 27, 1867, is that the Catalan composer and pianist attended the world premiere of his fourth opera, Goyescas, at the Metropolitan Opera Jan. 28, 1916, but tragically drowned in the English Channel with his wife, Amparo, almost two months later, on March 24, 1916, in the aftermath of the SS Sussex ferry torpedoing by a German U-boat.

Anna Fitziu and Giovanni Martinelli in principal roles of Rosario and Fernando in the Metropolitan Opera’s world premiere of Goyescas by Catalan composer Enric Granados; costume designer G.B. Santoni based costumes upon paintings by Spanish Romantic painter Francisco Goya (March 30, 1746-April 16, 1828); George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington DC: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Concert d’Enric Granados al Liceu, ca. 1911-1912 oil on canvas portrait by Catalan modernist painter Lluïsa Vidal i Puig (April 2, 1876-Oct. 22, 1918): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Concert_d'Enric_Granados_al_Liceu,_c._1911-1912.jpg

Anna Fitziu and Giovanni Martinelli in principal roles of Rosario and Fernando in the Metropolitan Opera’s world premiere of Goyescas by Catalan composer Enric Granados; costume designer G.B. Santoni based costumes upon paintings by Spanish Romantic painter Francisco Goya (March 30, 1746-April 16, 1828); George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington DC: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/ggbain.33753/

For further information:

Clark, Walter Aaron. Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano. New York NY: Oxford University Press, 2006.

“Granados Benefit Concert.” MetOpera Database > [Met Concert/Gala] CID: 63310 Granados Benefit Concert. Metropolitan Opera House: 5/7/1916.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=63310

“Granados Children to Get $11,000 Fund.” Musical Courier, vol. LXXII, no. 19, whole no. 1885 (May 11, 1916): 16.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=tuo6AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA18-PA16
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/chi.105755091?urlappend=%3Bseq=1232

Granados, Enrique. Apuntes y Temas Para Mis Obras (Notes and Themes for My Work). The Morgan Library & Museum > Exhibitions > Past Exhibitions > 2013-2014 > Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings, January 17 Through May 11, 2014.
Available @ https://www.themorgan.org/collection/music-manuscripts-and-printed-music/144519

Kobbé, Gustav. The Complete Opera Book: The Stories of the Operas, Together With 400 of the Leading Airs and Motives of Musical Notation. New York NY: The Knickerbocker Press, 1919.
Available via Project Gutenberg @ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40540/40540-h/40540-h.htm

Marriner, Derdriu. “Cav Pag Is Jan. 13, 2018, Met Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Jan. 8, 2018.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/01/cavpag-is-jan-13-2018-met-opera.html

Rous, Samuel Holland. The Victrola Book of the Opera: Stories of One-Hundred and Twenty Operas With Seven-Hundred Illustrations and Descriptions of Twelve-Hundred Victor Opera Records. Camden NJ: Victor Talking Machine Company, 1917.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/victrolabookofop00vict/

“World Premiere: Goyescas.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 61870 World Premiere (Goyescas) Goyescas {1} Pagliacci {168} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/28/1916.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=61870