Manuel “Melico” Salazar (1887-1950) was born in the town of San Jose, Costa Rica and displayed outstanding vocal talent from an early age. By the age of fifteen, the young singer was appearing in small roles in local zarzuela productions. He began studying voice with Italian born composer and pianist, Alvise Castegnaro, but realized that studies in Italy were needed to start a serious operatic career. Shortly after his 20th birthday, Salazar set sail for Italy, where he lodged with Castegnaro’s family in Milan. After three years of intense study, the budding tenor returned to the Americas and signed his first professional contract. Salazar made his operatic debut in 1910 with a small company touring Cuba, Mexico and Central America. In 1911, he appeared professionally in his homeland for the first time as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana and Radames in Aïda. That same year, he made his U.S. debut on tour with the Lombardi Opera Company, singing a variety of roles in Los Angeles, Memphis, Seattle and other cities. After additional tours with Fortune Gallo’s legendary San Carlo Opera, Salazar returned to Italy for further study. According to some sources, he made his European debut in Milan as Radu in Leoncavallo’s forgotten opera Zingari in December of 1913. Other sources claim it was as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro dal Verme in 1914. Regardless, Salazar was on his way.

For the next two seasons, the tenor bounced around the Italian and Spanish provinces before settling in the U.S. in 1915. Salazar rejoined the San Carlo Opera for another tour that took him to such cities as New York, Boston, Detroit and St. Louis. It was during another tour…in Cuba this time…that Salazar was pressed into service as a last minute replacement for Caruso in Il Trovatore. Hearing of the young tenor’s success, Caruso attended a performance of Salazar’s Otello a few days later and reportedly led him to the stage for his curtain call at the opera’s conclusion. Interestingly, it was as a Caruso replacement of sorts that Salazar was contracted at the Metropolitan after the great tenor’s death in 1921. Salazar’s debut there was yet another last minute affair…he stepped in for an indisposed Giovanni Martinelli in La Forza del Destino on New Year’s Eve, 1921. His official debut with the company occurred several weeks later, on February 24, 1922 as Canio in Pagliacci. The reviews were rather indifferent, with Oscar Thompson of Musical America stating that Salazar, “…sang the role creditably. The voice is not a large one in the Metropolitan, nor one of uniformly good quality.” Unfortunately, the tenor really never had much of a chance to make an impression on Met audiences. He sang exactly nine operatic performances in house (and another two on tour), as well as a trio of concerts during his two seasons there.

During his two decades in the U.S., Salazar sang leading roles in a wide variety of operas such as Tosca, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Andrea Chénier, Nerone, La Gioconda, Manon, Carmen, Thaïs, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Un Ballo in Maschera, Rigoletto and, his greatest role, Otello. He was a frequent visitor to the stages of Havana, Lima, Rio, Bari, Barcelona, Moscow, Leningrad, Riga and Berlin. He returned to his native Costa Rica in 1938 and retired shortly thereafter. Although he was a beloved national figure and was bestowed with a sizeable pension by the Costa Rican government, he was not destined to enjoy a peaceful retirement. During Costa Rica’s political upheaval of the late 1940s, Salazar pledged his support to former president Rafael Calderón. Unfortunately, Calderón’s rival, José Figueres, managed to seize power during the Civil War of 1948 and Salazar found himself on the wrong side of the revolution. Stripped of his pension and ostracized by his countrymen, Salazar spent his final years in abject poverty and obscurity. He died on August 6, 1950, a forgotten and broken man…a sad end for the once popular figure.

The years have not been kind to the memory of Melico Salazar, probably due to the fact that his recorded legacy is practically nil. Apart from a single test recording for Edison, Salazar’s entire recorded output consists of eight sides for Columbia (one of which was never released) and a 40-minute film of highlights from Verdi’s Otello…hardly the basis for a comprehensive critical analysis of the tenor’s artistry. Still, Salazar’s handful of recordings offer a sometimes thrilling glimpse into the performance style of Costa Rica’s greatest dramatic tenor. In this recording, made for Columbia in 1929, Salazar sings Pollione's aria, "Meco all' altar di Venere" from Bellini's Norma.

свернуть