The voice of a first lady: Rita Terranova revives Regina Pacini

Rita Terranova You cannot hide your emotion against the imminent premiere of “Regina”, Next Sunday at the Tinglado, at 20. “This return could not be better,” he says in conversation with this newspaper. “I always admire the figure of Regina Pacini de Alvearand after two complicated years I return to a stage. The author and director of the work, Carlos IaquintaI had offered the role in those two years. And he waited for me, which I thank you deeply. ”

The former first lady has a huge dimension in Argentine history in multiple facets: as a lyric singer, as benefactor and, also, as a pioneer among women who obtained cultural and social conquests in the country; So much so that there are few who called her “The radical avoids” (There is a mention of that in the work). Also, like Avoidhe endured the contempt of the well -off classes of Argentina, in addition to her husband’s family, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvearwho refused to accept it.

“The zeal I had was such Alvear by Regina That, once he stopped singing, he came to buy all the copies of the existing albums so that no one had anything of her, ”he says Newfoundland. “When they decided to marry, Alvear He swears that he would abandon his career, ”he continues.“ She asked him for a period of six years to say goodbye to the world’s stages. Alvear granted it, but accompanied her everywhere, even during her tour of Moscow. It is said that on one occasion, in Milan, he bought all the towns of a theater. She knew nothing: when she went on stage, she saw that he was only, in a box, and so the function was done. ”

In that opulent Argentina (opulent for a few, of course) of which Marcelo T. de Alvear He was representative by Antonomasia, the ruling class of “The butter to the roof and the cow tied”everything was possible. Even these macho impositions. About this topic, Newfoundland Smile: “Once, the director Francisco Javier He told me a phrase that I never forgot in what refers to judging the past. Told me: ‘You always have to think about the characters before and after psychoanalysis’. Anyway, and historians agree on this, Regina He did not assume that order as a sacrifice. She was deeply in love and was not interested in anything other than being by her. So it was. ”

The story

Regina Pacini Quintero (1871-1965) was the daughter of an Italian baritone and a Spanish woman. He was born in Lisbon, during his father’s management at the San Carlos Theater in the Portuguese capital. He studied singing since childhood and was perfecting his registration of light lyric soprano, specialized in Bel Canto. It was a middle class family that quickly impoverished the early death of his father.

Therefore, she went out to sing to make a living and be a support of her family, without imagining that her debut, at age 17 in Lisbon in the opera “The Sonnambula” of BelliniIt would be a resounding success. Since then, their triumphs happened vertiginously in the protagonists of operas as “La Bohème”, “Manon”, “Lucia di Lamermoor”, “El Barbero de Sevilla”, etc). “In London,” he says Newfoundland“Gilda’s role came to sing in “Rigoletto” with Enrico Caruso.

In 1899, already an international star, he made his first tour of South America, and debuted at the Solís Theater in Montevideo. “It was in El Solís,” he recalls Newfoundland“When a Alvear cousin discovered her, and when he returned to Buenos Aires he told him that he could not miss that unique soprano, which should see her. Then, exactly on August 5 of that year, during the presidency of Roca, Regina sang at the Politeama Theater of Buenos Aires the role of Rosina of ‘The Barber …’, and he met her. The arrow was immediate. Branch of red and white roses, the color of the radical game, and a ring of precious stones.

“There began the love story,” he continues. “She, although at the beginning she was reluctant, fell in love with Alvear, and he, the black sheep of the aristocratic family, had to fight against all those who did not love her by her side. He was a man accustomed to giving battles. Within the party he faced the Irigoyenist branch, he was imprisoned on Martín García Island, gave so many fights, how would he not face his peers. Family for his relationship with Regina?

The wedding was reserved and distant: it took place in 1914 in the church of La Encarnación, in Lisbon, hometown of Regina. That same day, more than 500 telegrams of friendships and relatives who urged him to reconsider his decision came to him. Incredible. But, on the return of the couple to Buenos Aires, she gradually integrates that cruel Buenos Aires society, which was accepting it. After the marriage, he gave him a French village called Manair by Coeur Volant, a splendid property surrounded by large gardens, located in Louveciennes, west of Paris.

Over there Regina She devoted to singing and her husband. It was in Coeur Volant where Alvear He received the news of his election as president of Argentina in 1922, which made Regina Pacini in First Lady. “In the French town,” he continues Newfoundland“She sang ‘Ideale’ of Tosti every morning, during breakfast. It was a relationship of total possessivity, beyond that alvear, as some historians said, had, as a good dandy and man of the world, some extramarital affairs, although always away from the public gaze. But the work does not judge at any time that behavior”

As for the work that promoted Regina from power, and that led to compare it with Avoid (“We were born poor, we both despised us, we were both artists,” He said once Regina), Newfoundland List: “He promoted the creation of Municipal Radio, which began to transmit the shows of the Colón Theater from day one [costumbre que mantuvo la emisora municipal hasta su privatización en los 90]; It was also the creator of the stable bodies of the Columbus, the Orchestra, the Ballet and the Choir, in 1925, which are now celebrating their centenary; He created the musical conservatory and scenic art, currently the UNA, and for what is most known today, in 1938 he was the founder of the theater house, which he housed and houses until today the artists of limited resources. The border theater is called Regina in honor of it. ”

“Alvear died in 1942 and she survived him 23 years”, He continues.“ Failiously, that number had a special significance in his life: he had died on April 23, and every 23 of each month, since then, she took him red and white carnations to his grave, and told him everything that happened to him. It was a love story as few. His economic situation was no longer the same; Alvear had squandered much of her fortune, she only had the fifth of Don Torcuato, in the Tigre party, a town that bears the name for her father -in -law, Torcuato de Alvear. The years of splendor had been left behind, to the point that during the government of Frondizi Regina was granted a life pension. ”

The work

“‘Regina’ It is musical theater, ”he clarifies Rita Terranova. “But it is not a work addressed only to the opera public. It is a work for all. Music was composed of Fernando Albinarratewith Susana Frangi in piano and musical direction. The structure, which has a book and direction of Carlos Iaquintacombines three levels, text theater, as realistic as possible; Musical theater, and opera ”.

“I am throughout the work on stage. At the beginning I appear as Regina when he turns 80, and upon receiving the visit of his nephew he begins to remember his life, I insist, with the theater’s own tools, trying to give the greatest likelihood and without being didactic. The stage is divided into two: on the one hand I am, evoking the central moments of the life of Regina, and on the other they are the singers and actors that give the singers and actors that give the singers and actors that are those memories. Loly Sánchez”

Alvear is played by the actor and baritone Leonardo Estévez And the cast is completed with Cali Mallo, María Luján Mirabelli, Alberto Jáuregui Lorda, Verónica Díaz Benavente, Adriana Poch and Martín Lira.