José Sosa Esquivel
Encyclopedia
José Sosa Esquivel was a Mexican tenor
. He is best known for being the father of the famed singer José José
. He died because of his alcoholism
, after leaving his family.
Fanny Anitùa
, at the Academia de la Ópera de Bellas Artes (Opera Academy of Fine Arts). He debuted in 1950 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes
playing the role of Azael on Debussy's L'Enfant prodigue
. In 1951, he played the role of Rinuccio in the Mexican premiere of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
. He was principal tenor of the national opera and first comprimario of the international opera. He sang in the opera seasons of Bellas Artes in Mexico City
, Guadalajara
, Veracruz
, Guanajuato
and Monterrey
.
In 1953, he played the roles of Prince Vasiliy Ivanovich Shuysky
and Yurodivy
in Boris Godunov
, next to Nicola Rossi-Lemeni
. In 1954, he participated in the inauguration of the Virginia Fábregas Theatre, singing the title role in Offenbach
's Orpheus in the Underworld
, and in 1958 at the world premiere of the "Cantata Homage to Juarez
", by Blas Galindo
, at the Degollado Theatre. He sang in productions like L'elisir d'amore
, La traviata
, Madama Butterfly
in the roles of Pinkerton and Goro, Pagliacci
in the role of Beppe, Mefistofele
, Trionfo di Afrodite
-at its premiere in Mexico-, Orphée aux Enfers, Tosca
as Spoletta, L'amore dei tre re
, Fedora, Andrea Chénier
, L'amico Fritz
, Carmina Burana
and La bohème
. He spanned the genres of lied
, oratorio
, zarzuela
and operetta
. He sang in Havana
, Cuba, in the 1954-1957 seasons.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
. He is best known for being the father of the famed singer José José
José José
José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz , known by his artistic name José José, is a Mexican singer.Referred in the entertainment world as "El Príncipe de la Canción" , José José is best known for his romantic ballads and renowned for his vocals...
. He died because of his alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, after leaving his family.
Career
He studied singing with the professor José Pierson, and the contraltoContralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
Fanny Anitùa
Fanny Anitùa
Fanny Anitúa was a renowned Mexican contralto opera singer.-History:Anitùa initially studied singing in her native city, moving afterward to Mexico City, and later to Rome. She debuted at Teatro Nazionale in Rome in 1910, singing the role of Orfeo from the eponymous Christoph Willibald Gluck opera...
, at the Academia de la Ópera de Bellas Artes (Opera Academy of Fine Arts). He debuted in 1950 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes
Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
playing the role of Azael on Debussy's L'Enfant prodigue
L'Enfant prodigue
L'Enfant prodigue was the first feature-length motion picture produced in Europe, running 90 minutes. Directed by Michel Carré, fils from his own three-act stage pantomime, the film was basically an unmodified record, filmed at Gaumont studio in May 1907...
. In 1951, he played the role of Rinuccio in the Mexican premiere of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
. He was principal tenor of the national opera and first comprimario of the international opera. He sang in the opera seasons of Bellas Artes in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Guadalajara
Guadalajara
Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...
, Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, Guanajuato
Guanajuato
Guanajuato officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 46 municipalities and its capital city is Guanajuato....
and Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
.
In 1953, he played the roles of Prince Vasiliy Ivanovich Shuysky
Vasili IV of Russia
Vasili IV of Russia was Tsar of Russia between 1606 and 1610 after the murder of False Dmitriy I. His reign fell during the Time of Troubles....
and Yurodivy
Yurodivy
Foolishness for Christ refers to behavior such as giving up all one's worldly possessions upon joining a monastic order. It can also refer to deliberate flouting of society's conventions to serve a religious purpose — particularly of Christianity. The term fools for Christ derives from the writings...
in Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
, next to Nicola Rossi-Lemeni
Nicola Rossi-Lemeni
Nicola Rossi Lemeni, , was a basso opera singer of mixed Italian-Russian parentage.Rossi Lemeni was born in Istanbul, Turkey, the son of an Italian colonel and a Russian mother. In his prime he was one of the most respected bassos in Italy...
. In 1954, he participated in the inauguration of the Virginia Fábregas Theatre, singing the title role in Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's Orpheus in the Underworld
Orpheus in the Underworld
Orphée aux enfers is an opéra bouffon , or opéra féerie in its revised version, by Jacques Offenbach. The French text was written by Ludovic Halévy and later revised by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux....
, and in 1958 at the world premiere of the "Cantata Homage to Juarez
Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...
", by Blas Galindo
Blas Galindo
-Biography:Born in San Gabriel, Jalisco, Galindo studied intermittently from 1931 to 1944 at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, under Carlos Chávez, Candelario Huizar, José Rolón, and Manuel Rodríguez Vizcarra...
, at the Degollado Theatre. He sang in productions like L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
, La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
in the roles of Pinkerton and Goro, Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
in the role of Beppe, Mefistofele
Mefistofele
Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito.-Composition history:...
, Trionfo di Afrodite
Trionfo di Afrodite
Trionfo di Afrodite is a cantata called "concerto scenico" written in 1951 by the German composer Carl Orff. It is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes Carmina Burana and Catulli Carmina...
-at its premiere in Mexico-, Orphée aux Enfers, Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
as Spoletta, L'amore dei tre re
L'amore dei tre re
L'amore dei tre re is an opera in three acts by Italo Montemezzi. Its Italian-language libretto was written by playwright Sem Benelli who based it on his own play of the same title.-Performance history:...
, Fedora, Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier is a verismo opera in four acts by the composer Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It is based loosely on the life of the French poet, André Chénier , who was executed during the French Revolution....
, L'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 from a libretto by P. Suardon , based on the French novel L'ami Fritz by Émile Erckmann and Pierre-Alexandre Chatrian.While the opera enjoyed some success in its day and is probably Mascagni's most famous work after...
, Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...
and La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. He spanned the genres of lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
, oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
, zarzuela
Zarzuela
Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance...
and operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
. He sang in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba, in the 1954-1957 seasons.