Gaspar Villate Montes

Villate, whose musical contributions were evident in operas, zarzuelas, symphonic and chamber works, despite living only 40 years, had a truly intense musical career focused on opera, achieving recognized prestige in Cuba and abroad, particularly in France.

At 14 years old, Villate composed an Ave María for four voices with choir and orchestra, and at 16, the opera Angelo Tirano di Padua, based on Victor Hugo's drama. These were the beginnings of an artistic career of a great musician that would culminate with operas deserving of applause and the best of journalistic and musical criticism. Among them are Zilia, premiered at the Teatro de los Italianos in Paris in 1877 and in Cuba at the Payret theater in 1881; Zarina, at the Royal Theater in The Hague in 1880; and Baltasar—based on the drama by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda—at the Royal Theater in Madrid in 1885. The significance of this latter work led the Cuban composer to receive a high distinction from Queen Isabella the Catholic. A year later he composed the funeral march that accompanied the burial of Alfonso XII.

Villate was one of the piano students of maestro Nicolás Ruíz de Espadero, both became prominent figures in Cuban culture, as were also the cases of Cecilia Arizti, Ignacio Cervantes, Carlos Alfredo Peyllerade, and others.

The Havanan Villate would complete his piano studies in the United States, where his parents moved when Cuba's independence war against Spain began in 1868. He was then 17 years old.

A year later he would be seen working in New York as an organist in various churches, until in 1871 he returns to his homeland, where he writes the opera Las Primeras Armas de Richelieu.

A characteristic of Villate was his comings and goings from Cuba to Europe and vice versa. Thus, eager to expand his musical knowledge, he travels to France and becomes a student of Bazín, Danhauser and Foncieres in the field of composition. It is in that country where he premiered, in 1877, his opera Zilia at the Teatro de los Italianos in Paris.

In 1880, once again, Villate is found in Havana, where he premieres the opera Zarina, which he would also do in 1885 at the Theater in Madrid.

Between 1884 and part of 1885, an old aspiration of Cuban musicians came to fruition to create an Academy or Conservatory of that specialty, having found in Villate one of the main enthusiasts to achieve that objective, along with Cervantes, Desvernine and some others. However, the efforts made proved fruitless, with it falling to the prestigious Dutch musician Hubert de Blanck to found the first Conservatory of Music and Elocution in Cuba.

On the other hand, several authors have made reference to the influence that the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) may have exerted on Villate's musical work. Messages exchanged between them are mentioned, but no personal encounter.

As is known, Verdi brought the Italian operatic school of the 19th century to its highest expression, and was the author of famous operas such as Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aída and many others.

Without a doubt, Gaspar Villate was a distinguished representative of Cuban culture of the late 19th century, one of those who gave solid prestige to our homeland through the years. Therefore, delving into his dynamic and fruitful life as a composer cannot be omitted at present by students, researchers and artists dedicated to music, especially opera.

When he died in Paris, he had achieved an important musical career. In addition to his operas, he had also composed numerous Cuban dances and contradanzas for piano, habaneras and funeral marches.

Months later, in 1892, Villate's mortal remains were transferred to Cuba, the land he loved so much, where they rest forever.