Carolina Casanova Rodríguez (10 January 1847 8 February 1910), known professionally as Carolina de Cepeda or simply La Cepeda, was a Spanish dramatic soprano, considered the best in her field during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Little is known about her early life in Ferrol, Spain, until she began studying music under Francisco Piñeiro, director of the Teatro Filarmónico de Ferrol (Ferrol Philharmonic Theatre). She was among the first Spanish sopranos to gain international acclaim in Europe.
She performed in some of the world's most prestigious opera houses, such as the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, London's Royal Opera House, and La Scala in Milan, and performed in the world premiere of Ciro Pinsuti's The Merchant of Venice at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
After her performing career, Carolina Casanova became a professor at the Escuela Nacional de Música y Declamación, now known as the Madrid Royal Conservatory, where she worked with significant figures in Spanish opera.
The day she died, the Conservatory opened its doors for students and teachers to pay their last respects. Some newspapers described her passing as "una pérdida irreparable [an irreparable loss]" for Spanish art.
Career
Early life and training
María Carolina Casanova Rodríguez was born 10 January 1847 in the Esteiro neighborhood of Ferrol, as the fourth daughter of Rosa Rodríguez da Veiga and Luis Casanova Pérez.
From the registers of 18401853, it is known that she lived on San Nicolao Street. Also, it has been deduced from the registers of Ferrol that her father was stationed in other cities and the approximate date of her father's death can be determined from these documents describing Rosa Rodríguez da Veiga as a widow in 1852. Little else is known of her childhood or adolescence in Ferrol, except that her family moved away in 1853.
Nothing is known about her music studies until her adolescence, when she studied with the maestro Francisco Piñeiro, senior musician of the Departamento de Mariña de Ferrol and director of the Teatro Filarmónico. It was at this precise theater in Ferrol where she made her debut in 1863, at age 16.
Her debut came about by chance; Piñeiro needed someone to fill in for his first soprano, and he was introduced to the young woman who had a reputation for her beautiful voice but no public singing experience. After her performance was a success, Piñeiro gave her wreaths of flowers and reportedly told her:
Through Piñeiro's own intervention, who was already looking ahead towards Cepeda's future musical career, she secured a soprano role in an opera company that was visiting the city, led by Macucci, who agreed to add her to his company, taking her under his and his wife's wing. A few months later, she performed with that same company in the Teatro de la Zarzuela, where she began to establish a reputation in the genre. In the Madrid theater she sang in the chorus alongside a young Julián Gayarre, and possibly met her future husband, Luis Rodríguez Cepeda, a composer and director of orchestras and choirs, who was twice her age; the two would marry in 1866. Although the date of her wedding remains unknown, the December 1866 Revista de Bellas Artes refers to "Señora Cepeda" (using her married surname) as the principal soprano contracted for the lyric opera company of Palma de Mallorca.
Carolina Casanova continued her training in Rome, where she studied theater. Subsequently, in Paris, she studied solfège and singing, temporarily living with family in the Parisian district Auteuil at various points. In the French capital, Cepeda had her first son, Luís, on 21 April 1869.
First tours After her acclaimed professional debut in Palma de Mallorca in Verdi's Rigoletto, she signed with the Teatro Principal de València. Madrid magazine La Escena reported on this, writing, "[the Valencian theater assembled a company, both for ordinary functions as well as extraordinary, like they never had in Valencia]" Carolina Casanova was one of the four prime donne engaged by the theater, along with three tenors, two baritones, two basses, and seven supporting singers. In Valencia she sang, among other works, Un ballo in maschera by Giuseppe Verdi and Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer. This same year she had her first contact with the Gran Teatre del Liceu to participate in a concert alongside students of the maestro Marià Obiols.
Immediately afterward, she began a tour of Latin America and northern Europe. After touring the principal theaters of the Americas, she had great success in Costa Rica in 1869, where the audience escorted her home while showering her with ovations. The soprano from Ferrol achieved success in Gothenburg, Sweden, as noted by the newspaper La Iberia in October. A few months later, in April 1870, the daily Madrid newspaper La Época published Cepeda's French accolades just as she was returning to Spain from Brazil. That same year, she also appeared in the Italian city of Avellino, singing Il trovatore by Verdi.
During her early tours, the Galician soprano visited Denmark, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. She performed in prominent theaters such as the Theatro D. Pedro II in Brazil, the Teatro Manuel Ascencio Segura in Lima, and the Uruguayan Solís Theatre in Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo.
It was precisely in the latter theater where Carolina Casanova left a lasting impression, so much so that after decades passed she was remembered with fond nostalgia by the city's music press, especially in the Montevideo Musical. She remained at the Teatro Solís for an extended season from April to September in 1872, where she sang The Barber of Seville by Rossini, along with La traviata, Rigoletto, and Un ballo in maschera by Verdi, in addition to Bellini's La sonnambula as well as Linda di Chamounix and Poliuto by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Her arrival in Peru was documented in the press, which noted her successful debut where she sang Verdi's La traviata in May 1871, and later joined the Italian opera company alongside Spanish-Italian soprano Adelina Patti, with whom she would cross paths years later in the London Royal Opera House.
In this period of touring, she had her second child, her daughter Luisa, on 4 June 1870 in Madrid.
Debut in Madrid
In early 1873, the soprano returned to Spain. In February of that year, the Madrid newspaper La Correspondencia de España reported her arrival with her husband, highlighting the success she had achieved for her work abroad with the Italian opera companies. The paper expressed interest from the Madrid public: "[Music lovers wish that the company of our Opera House will provide them with the pleasure to hear such a celebrated artist, according to the foreign and American press.]" In this report the name of Carolina Casanova appears before that of her husband, possibly indicating that she had eclipsed him in fame.
She made her debut in the Teatro Real (formerly the Teatro Nacional de la Ópera) in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma on 12 March 1873. She also participated in the performances of Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata on the 23rd and 25th, as well as the premiere of Filippo Marchetti's Ruy Blas on the 29th.
The press in the Spanish capital was divided regarding her debut. While Galicia Moderna, La Iberia, and La Época echoed the triumph on the Madrid stage, with La Época pointing out that after her performance of the aria "Casta Diva", she was called back onstage twice. In contrast, other contemporary reviews were not so positive: music and bullfighting critic described Carolina Casanova's performance as a "mal éxito [poor success]". The harshest criticism came from La Moda elegante, where Marqués de Valle-Alegre concluded, "La Cepeda podrá ocupar un honroso puesto en el teatro de la Ópera, pero no el principal... [La Cepeda can occupy an honorable position in the Opera House, but not the main one...]" The criticism may have resulted in her decision not to return to the Teatro Real for over a decade.
Whatever the case, the soprano did not sing again in the Teatro Real until 1885when she reprised her original Madrid performance of Normaafter a prestigious international career. The following year, she performed at the Teatro Jovellanos and the Conservatorio and then left for Italy.
International success
In September 1873, Carolina Casanova received a warm welcome at her debut at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, Italy. On 8 November, she played the role of Portia in the first production of Ciro Pinsuti's Il mercante di Venezia (an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice) in the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. She returned to the stage later that year, on 5 December, and in January, she appeared in Achille Montuoro's Il re Manfredi and Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.
During these years, she also performed at the Warsaw Grand Theater in Poland, where she took the main role in the theater's Polish premiere of Aida.
In 1876, the soprano was engaged to sing Verdi's Requiem Mass at the Teatro Regio in Parma, and was awarded a gold medal for her work. The performance was conducted by Franco Faccio, and the concert was attended by future King of Italy, Umberto of Savoy, and his wife Margherita of Savoy. Later that year, Carolina Casanova made her debut at the Liceu in Barcelona. She performed at the Liceu between December 1876 and March 1877, most notably in the theater's premiere of Verdi's Aida alongside Italian tenor Francesco Tamagno on February 25, 1877, six years after its world premiere in Cairo. Her second season in Barcelona stood out even more, when she gave a highly acclaimed performance as Lucrezia Borgia alongside Julián Gayarre. Carolina Casanova performed in Lisbon with the opera company of the Real Teatro, where she debuted in Fromental Halévy's L'Ebrea and sang in Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, Gounod's Faust, Il trovatore, Ernani, Un ballo in maschera, and Verdi's Aida.
In 1878, she joined the Royal Italian Opera, directed by Frederick Gye, at the Royal Opera House in London. A successful first season led Carolina Casanova to perform again at Covent Garden in 1879, alternating with Adelina Patti in the second season, singing dramatic roles in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and Robert le diable, Wagner's Tannhäuser, Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro, and Bellini's Norma. The London press highlighted the audience's warm reception and praised Carolina Casanova's professionalism. In those two seasons, the Galician soprano shared the stage with Navarrese tenor Julián Gayarre, with whom she would perform on numerous occasions throughout her career. The second London season ended with Norma, about which Julio Enciso wrote for the Havana-based Basque-language newspaper Ir-rac-bat, and which was syndicated by Galicia Modern: "It was the artistic crowning achievement that capped off the glory of Carolina Cepeda, winning her the title of a celebrated figure in the opinion of the press and the public."
In October 1878, Carolina Casanova performed in Russia with the Saint Petersburg Imperial troupe, as reported by Crónica Musical. Early the next year, Madrid’s La Época listed her among the company’s prima donnas, noting the Russian press’s acclaim. La Época wrote that she was regarded as an "artista de primer orden [artist of the first order]" receiving "[more than 20 curtain calls]" each performance. Her manager during this period was José Lago González, a Coruña-born impresario known as "Bismarck the Galician," who later served as artistic director of the Imperial Theatres of St. Petersburg and Moscow. She also added Don Giovanni to her repertoire and performed Marina and three new works by Navarrese composer Emilio Arrieta in London and possibly St. Petersburg.