Henry Lanza: Música, Ópera, Modernidad y Religiosidad en la construcción cultural de la República Chilena Temprana (1840 – 1860)

Abstract

Henry Lanza, European and cosmopolitan singer, was the most criticized of all the composers in charge of the musicians of the cathedral in Santiago de Chile. It probably had to do with his role as an opera singer, being at the same time a public figure in the midst of a crisis involving the Catholic Church and the Chilean state in the new republican times. But if for the church he was a controversial man, as a stage singer he was thought as the embodiment of modern and progressive times, specially between art and music aficionados, waiting for more European music in American soil. This essay proposes revisiting Henry Lanza as a major figure in Santiago arts-scene during the 19th Century, understanding through him the role music was thought to have in the construction of a new nation, defying at the same time the usual categories of music history used in local musicological studies.