Ángela Peralta: Google Doodle on Mexican operatic soprano, composer’s 175th birthday

Happy birthday, Ángela Peralta!

Today's Doodle celebrates the 175th birthday of Mexican pianist, harpist, composer, and internationally-renowned operatic soprano Ángela Peralta, who is widely considered one of the most significant Mexican opera singers of her era.

The Mexican operatic soprano and composer, Ángela Peralta (baptised María de los Ángeles Manuela Tranquilina Cirila Efrena Peralta Castera) was born in July 6, 1845. She was th daughter of Manuel Peralta and Josefa Castera de Peralta.

Ángela Peralta showed an early talent for singing and music. At the age of 8, she sang a cavatina from Belisario by Gaetano Donizetti with great success, and went on to study at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City.

At 15, Peralta made her operatic debut at the Gran Teatro Nacional—one of 19th-century Mexico’s premier opera houses. This performance received such acclaim that it prompted Peralta to further refine her talent in Italy, the birthplace of opera.

In Milan, Peralta’s 1862 performance of the romantic opera “Lucia di Lammermoor” so impressed the audience that standing ovations brought her back to the stage 23 times! She sang Bellini's La sonnambula before King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy at the Teatro Regio in Turin where she received 32 curtain calls.

Between 1863 and 1864, she sang in the opera houses of Rome, Florence, Bologna, Genoa, Naples, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, St. Petersburg, Alexandria, and Cairo.

The Second Mexican Empire invited her to return to her country to sing in the National Imperial Theatre, and in 1865 she accepted the invitation. In 1866 she sang before Maximilian I of Mexico and Charlotte of Belgium and was named "Chamber singer of the Empire".

The scope of her international tours broadened to include some of Europe’s most prestigious opera houses as well as the U.S., garnering the title of “Mexican Nightingale'' for her mastery of the lyrical operatic style known as bel canto.

Peralta returned to Mexico City in 1871, a homecoming announced by yet another grand performance at the Gran Teatro Nacional.

Soon after, Peralta utilized this successful momentum to found her own opera company. On their final tour in 1883, Peralta’s troupe traveled to the coastal Mexican city of Mazatlán. Here, her legacy is preserved in an opera house named in her honor: the Ángela Peralta Theater.

Also Read: Shusaku Arakawa: Google honors Japanese conceptual artist, architect on his 85th birthday