Pablo Rosquellas

Pablo Mariano Rosquellas (Madrid, 1784 – Sucre, Bolivia, 1859) was a Spanish violinist, singer and composer whose career unfolded for much of its course across Spanish America and Brazil. His case illustrates the mobility of theatre musicians in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the War of Independence cut short careers in the royal chapel.

He was trained by his father and other members of the family and, while still very young, played the violin in the service of the Duke of Medinaceli and at the Madrid church of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad. In 1805 he was a viola player in the royal chapel, but the war led him to leave that post and embark on a career as a tenor, actor, composer and director of opera and theatre companies. He travelled to London, Paris and Ireland, and later to Brazil, where he organised concerts at the court of Pedro I and in theatres in Rio de Janeiro. There he premiered his opera O grande califa de Bagdad in 1819.

In 1823 he settled in Buenos Aires, where he gave numerous vocal and instrumental concerts and, after some difficulties, succeeded in establishing a permanent opera company. He was responsible for many Argentine premieres of operas by Rossini, among them Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, L'inganno felice, Otello and Tancredi, as well as Zingarelli's Giulietta e Romeo and Mozart's Don Giovanni. He also performed in Montevideo.

In 1833 he moved to Bolivia, where he operated a silver mine in Potosí without abandoning musical activity. He later travelled to Chile and Peru and eventually settled in Chuquisaca, today Sucre, where he devoted himself to business. In 1835 he founded the Sociedad Filarmónica Dramática, which remained active for more than a century. His youngest son, Luis Pablo Rosquellas (1823–1883), also distinguished himself as a singer and composer.

His importance lies above all in his role as a disseminator of Italian opera in the River Plate and the Andes, at a time when touring companies were the principal channel of contact with the European repertoire. The dates and details of his career derive from research studies, and it is therefore advisable to read them as those works present them.