Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Columbus Day

Falla’s Atlántida A Columbus Day Discovery

On this most controversial of federal holidays, here’s a reminder of Manuel de Falla’s scenic cantata “Atlántida.” “Atlántida” tells the story of the lost continent of Atlantis, with appearances by Hercules, Pyrene (the Queen of the Pyrenees), the Hesperides (nymphs who tend a blissful garden), Queen Isabella… and a shipwrecked Christopher Columbus.

Distilled to its essence, the plot, synthesized from legends and myths into a grandiose verse epic by 19th century Catalan poet Jacint Verdaguer, follows the great flood that submerged Atlantis, Hercules sparing Spain from its waters, and from Spain the discovery of the New World.

Interestingly, Falla eschews the overtly Spanish idioms that make his ballets, “El amor brujo” and “The Three-Cornered Hat,” so insistently memorable. The result is something much more austere, akin to the choral works of Stravinsky and Arthur Honegger.

It is Falla’s most ambitious work, at which he labored for 20 years, up until his death in 1946. The composer envisioned it as his magnum opus, yet it is very seldom heard. Falla disciple Ernesto Halffter arranged the incomplete sketches into a performing edition, which he conducted at the work’s premiere in 1961. He revised the piece in 1976, at the request of Falla’s publisher, allegedly bringing the work closer to the composer’s vision.

There are a few recordings on YouTube, and some in better sound, but here’s a notable television broadcast featuring Montserrat Caballé and Teresa Berganza, with Jesús López Cobos conducting. Caballé and Berganza are interviewed as part of an intermission feature, around the 48-minute mark. Depending on your proficiency with Spanish, you may need to use some sort of translator.

Columbus Day was established as a federal holiday by President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage; but his true intention was to stem anti-immigrant sentiment and violence against Italian-Americans. (11 Italian immigrants had recently been lynched in New Orleans by American “nativists.”) There was no sinister agenda to force Columbus down anyone’s throats or to excuse his personal flaws. Rather, Columbus Day was perceived as a time to celebrate American patriotism, citizenship, and social progress. That’s how people thought back then, in those hopelessly naïve times, before social media.

But really, my aim in posting this is not political, but musical, even if it is the one day a year I pause to acknowledge my Italian-American side.

October 13, 2025
Columbus Day Music From Dvorak to Weill

Without wishing to throw my austere explorer’s hat into the ring on the whole Columbus Day controversy, this is an interesting article in the Washington Post about the origins of the now-reviled holiday and its significance to Italian-American history. Don’t like it? Thank American “nativist” backlash against Italian immigrants and violence against Italian-Americans – and a Hail Mary pass (my dad’s people may have been Italian, but my mother was Irish) by President Benjamin Harrison to stem anti-immigration sentiment. Hey, if things had played out differently, Americans could just as easily have been arguing about Giovanni da Verrazzano.

The greatest irony is the article’s concluding observation. There is nothing at all incendiary in the fairly objective tone of the piece (which the Post has published as an “opinion”), but the comments are full of passionate vitriol.

What’s all this got to do with music? Whether due to personal interest or in pursuit of a paycheck, there are plenty of composers who wrote works inspired by, or commissioned to celebrate, Columbus: Leonardo Balada, Antonin Dvořák, Manuel de Falla, Alberto Franchetti, Philip Glass, Victor Herbert, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Richard Wagner, Sir William Walton, and Kurt Weill are just a few that spring to mind.

No political message intended; I simply find the article – and some of the music – interesting.

Well, at least, to my knowledge, nobody raises hell anymore about Amerigo Vespucci (for whom “America” is named) – except perhaps Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin.

October 14, 2024
Columbus Day Classical Music & Montserrat Caballé

Before Columbus Circle, Columbus OH, and the Knights of Columbus came… He Who Must Not Be Named.

He’s a controversial figure today, but he inspired a lot of music, and this afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll sample some of it, including works by Richard Wagner (for a stage play), Sir William Walton (for a radio play), Victor Herbert (for the concert hall, by way of the Chicago World’s Fair), and Kurt Weill & Ira Gershwin (for film).

In addition, we’ll honor one of Spain’s greatest singers, Montserrat Caballé, who died on Saturday at the age of 85, and remember composers Louis Vierne and Toru Takemitsu, on the anniversaries of their births.

In 1492, he sailed the ocean blue. No one will be harmed in the discovery of stimulating music on Columbus Day, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Montserrat Caballé sings Queen Isabella alongside José Carrera’s Columbus, in the world premiere of Leonarda Balada’s “Cristóbal Cólon” (1989)

October 8, 2018
Columbus Day Classical Composers

On this Columbus Day, discover music by Johann Wilhelm Hertel, Camille Saint-Saëns, Janis Ivanovs, and Einojuhani Rautavaara. We’ll celebrate the birthday anniversaries of this very interesting assortment, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: A callow Classic Ross Amico backstage with Einojuhani Rautavaara at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music in 2000, following the premiere of the composer’s Symphony No. 8 “The Journey.” The photo was taken by Anssi Blomstedt, grandson of Jean Sibelius.

October 9, 2017
Exploration Anthems WPRB’s Columbus Day Soundtrack

Yeah, yeah, I know, explorers are all bad people, and they should be reviled.

This week on WPRB, as the rest of the world gets ready to hurl brickbats at Columbus, we’ll take some time to reflect on the theme of exploration. We’ll hear music inspired by a number of the great European explorers, many of whom have recently fallen into disfavor.

There will be plenty of music for Columbus, naturally, in advance of the three-day weekend. We’ll also have works related to Henry Hudson, Sir Walter Raleigh and Francisco Pizarro, with a nod or two to Leif Erikson, who arrived in North American nearly 500 years before Columbus embarked, and Alfred Newman’s decidedly un-PC “Conquest,” in glorification of the Conquistadors.

As a special treat, Sir Edmund Hillary will narrate “Landfall in Unknown Seas,” composed by Douglas Lilburn to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of Abel Tasman in New Zealand.

And to bring us even more up to date, we’ll listen to Joaquin Rodrigo’s salute to NASA and its commitment to the final frontier, “In Search of the Beyond.”

I don’t know, maybe we should all still be living in the Old Country, shuddering against the threat of sea serpents or dropping off the edge of a flat earth. But then where would be our diversity, heightened sensitivity, and righteous indignation?

We sail the ocean blue, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. If the scurvy doesn’t get you, the sea serpents will, on Classic Ross Amico.

October 4, 2017

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