La púrpura de la rosa
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La púrpura de la rosa (The Blood of the Rose) is an opera in one act, composed by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco to a Spanish libretto by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, a great writer of the Spanish Golden Age.
Purpura de la rosa | |
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Opera by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco | |
Librettist | Pedro Calderón de la Barca |
Language | Spanish |
Based on | Ovid's tale of Venus and Adonis |
Premiere |
It is the first known opera to be composed and performed in the Americas[2] and is Torrejón y Velasco's only surviving opera. La púrpura de la rosa was first performed in Lima in 1701 to celebrate the 18th birthday of Philip V and the first anniversary of his succession to the Spanish throne. The libretto, in polymetric verse and filled with lush mythological imagery, is a re-telling of the Ovidian tale of the loves of Venus and Adonis. Torrejón y Velasco was not the first to use Calderón's libretto. The text had previously been set for a theatrical pageant in honor of the marriage of Louis XIV and Maria Teresa of Spain in 1660, with music possibly written by Juan Hidalgo de Polanco, composer and master of music at the court of Madrid. With its erotic poetry and music, this setting was very popular at the Spanish court and had several revivals.[3]