It’s odd that Ángela Peralta, recognized as “the Mexican nightingale” for her beautiful singing, had a litany-length full name. Mara de los Ángeles Manuela Tranquilina Cirila Efrena Peralta y Castera was her registered name. She was born on June 16, 1845, in Mexico City to a poor family, and died on August 30, 1883, in Mazatlan, while attempting to reclaim the reputation that had once placed her at the pinnacle of the world operatic scene.
Despite the fact that Ángela Peralta was never awarded a government scholarship, her father was able to pay for the trip and personally travel with her while they sought for a singing instructor in Spain. As soon as they departed for Milan to hire Francesco Lamperti, Ángela’s development became apparent. In 1862, she made her stage debut in Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti at Milan’s La Scala. Her performance that evening caused the crowd to go wild and ecstatic, and even one of Donizetti’s sons praised the soprano’s wonderful voice while mourning the fact that his father had not lived to hear her.
Ángela Peralta Theatre
Ángela Peralta’s theater was not the first theater in Mazatlan. In the mid-1800s there were several theaters in Mazatlan including Teatro El Recreo, Teatro Principal and Teatro Alegria, depicted in the beautiful watercolor to the left by William H. Meyers, a gunner on the USS Dale during Vatio Alina the Mexican-American war, in 1843. This painting by Meyers — a highly skilled but amateur artist — is likely the earliest depiction of a theater in Mazatlan, and also likely the earliest depiction of any theater in northwest Mexico.
In 1869 Manuel Rubio, a prominent merchant, made a request of the City Council to construct a new, more sumptuous theater. Rubio wanted to demonstrate the mercantile and political importance of The Pearl of The Pacific, then the capital of the state of Sinaloa – – and highlight it as the economic center of northwest Mexico. Construction began that same year just off the Plaza Machado in what has become known as the Mazatlan Centro Historico under the direction of Librado
Ángela Peralta Husband
On her deathbed, she married Julián Montiel y Duarte, her boyfriend. She was already asleep when the marriage ceremony took place, according to an eyewitness statement. Lemus, one of her company’s vocalists, held her up by the shoulders. Lemus made a head movement to give the impression that she was nodding in agreement when asked if she accepted Montiel y Duarte as her spouse.
Her body was laid in state, wearing one of her opera costumes and her finest jewelry, before her burial in Mazatlán. Her bones were exhumed and transferred to Mexico City’s Panteón de Dolores’ Rotunda de Hombres Ilustres (the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons) in 1937. She has theaters named after her in San Miguel de Allende and Mazatlán.
Peralta’s husband, Eugenio Castera, died in 1877; Peralta subsequently formed a scandalous liaison with her manager, Julián Montiel y Duarte. Ostracized in Mexico City, she took her company to remote towns, including Mazatlán, where she contracted yellow fever and died at age thirty-eight. In 1937 her remains were moved to the Panteón in Mexico City.
Ángela Peralta family
Ángela Peralta was born on 6th July 1845 in Las Vizcainas, a neighborhood of Mexico city. Her father was an educator and soldier. She displayed a gift for singing from quite an early age and was exposed to training by a music tutor when she was a child. Peralta was popularly known for the passionate resonance of her voice and the sound it produced.
According to an article blog about Peralta, “Her reputation as a remarkable singer began to take hold with her solo performance of a cavatina from the Italian opera ‘Belisario’ when she was just eight years old.” Though Peralta was of “humble origin,” she obtained an adequate education from the early stage of her life because of her singing talent and “extraordinary voice.”
She is of an indigenous ancestry and a very humble family, and she served as a servant from childhood to help her family’s financial state. Her talents and arts were discovered when she came out to perform a song by Donizetti. At that time, she was eight years of age. She was aged 16, and she embarked on her first trip to Europe, accompanied by her dad.
Ángela Peralta went to Italy to perfect her career in singing and made her debut at La Scala in Milan on 13 May 1862, in the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Young Ángela also performed the role of Amina in Vincenzo Bellini’s La Sonnambula before King Victor Emmanuel II at the Teatro Regio in Turin. She went on for three years on tour, singing in Rome, Naples, Florence, Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona, in Russia and even Egypt.
Ángela Peralta Success
Following that, Ángela Peralta was given the opportunity to perform in front of Victor Emmanuel II in Turin, where she sang a rendition of Vincenzo Bellini’s La sonnambula. The audience’s applause for her was so intense that she had to leave the stage 32 times to accept them. The entire theater rocked as a result of the enthusiastic clapping.
She was adored by critics and spectators, and for the following two years, she was in high demand throughout Italy. She performed in Turin, Genoa, Naples, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Lisbon, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Cairo, Alexandria, and St. Petersburg theaters, all while achieving enormous success. The trip was expanded to include stops throughout America, including New York and Havana.
In 1865 Ángela Peralta returned to Mexico at the invitation of Emperor Maximilian, who asked her to sing at the Teatro Imperial Mexicano (which was the former Teatro Nacional). Upon her arrival, the streets of the capital were crowded with admirers who welcomed her in an official act. Before a full theater, which ecstatically applauded her voice in Bellini’s La sonnambula, Ángela Peralta began a series of performances in the country that continued in the provinces.