Juan García

Juan García received his first music lessons from his father, who also taught him to play the guitar and the basics of singing. Still very young, Juan was sent to the city of Valbona where his uncle Elías García was the parson. When he was eleven years old, his uncle sent him to the Salesian school in Barcelona where Juan García improved his knowledge in singing, piano and guitar.

He was very soon known for his beautiful voice, and some money was collected by his home town authorities to send him for further studies to Italy. He arrived in Milan in 1922 and studied singing with Arnaldo Galliera. To earn his living, he had to work as a house painter.

Juan García's operatic debut took place in February 1925 at the Teatro del Casinò in Sanremo, as the Duke in Rigoletto. He was a success and had to sing several performances of this opera.

He returned to Spain and on 31 May 1925 made his debut as des Grieux in Massenet's Manon at the Teatro Tívoli, in Barcelona. The title role was sung by the beautiful French soprano Geneviève Vix. A few days later, on 7 June, he was Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia in a cast that included Mercedes Capsir (Rosina), Salvatore Persichetti (Figaro), Gabriel Olaizola (Basilio) and José Fernández (Bartolo). The conductor was Antonio Capdevila.

Back to Italy, García was engaged by Pietro Mascagni for his opera company that had another Spaniard as "first" tenor: Hipólito Lázaro. They sang in Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt.

On 14 April 1927, Juan García was warmly received in a performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Carcano, in Milan, with Toti Dal Monte (Rosina), Giulio Fregosi (Figaro), Sante Canali (Basilio) and Giuseppe Antonicelli as the conductor. On 17 May 1927, he sang Almaviva again, now at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with Margarita Salvi (Rosina), Angelo Pilotto (Figaro), Nino Marotta (Basilio), Concetto Paterna (Bartolo) and the conductor Umberto Berretoni. There was another performance on 24 May.

After singing in Bologna, Livorno and Genoa, Juan García returned to Spain and on 8 December 1927 he sang Almaviva at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, with Conchita Supervía (Rosina), Enrico De Franceschi (Figaro), Felipe Romito (Basilio), Carlos del Pozo (Bartolo). It was the first time that in Spain the role of Rosina was sung by a mezzosoprano and not by a coloratura!

On 4 May 1929, Juan García sang Manon at the Teatro Marín, in Teruel, with Carmen Bau Bonaplata, Galá, Patalla, Giralt and Riaza; and on 5 May, he sang Il barbiere di Siviglia with Pilar Duamirg. Both were benefit performances for scrofulous children. On 8 May, Juan García sang at the Plaza España in Seville, the "Himno a la Exposición de Sevilla", conducted by the author Francisco Alonso. (Collectors certainly know that hymn in the famous version by Miguel Fleta. Unfortunately, García did not record it.) On 14 September 1929, he offered a recital at the Coliseo in Torrelavega and later sang at the Teatro Principal in Zaragoza, Teatro Principal and Plaza de Toros (bullring) in Valencia, further in Bilbao, Santander, San Sebastián and Oviedo.

Though Juan García was a beloved tenor and enjoyed a nice career, he faced strong competition by tenors who had the same kind of voice (tenore di grazia): the Italians Tito Schipa, Dino Borgioli, Roberto D'Alessio, Enzo De Muro Lomanto, Giovanni Manurita, Nino Ederle, Luigi Fort, Aldo Sinnone, Bruno Landi, Piero Menescaldi, Emilio Renzi and Enzo Perulli, the Russian Alexander Vesselovsky (Alessandro Wesselowsky), the Greek Cristy Solari, the Australian Lionel (Lionello) Cecil, the Portuguese Tomaz Alcaide, the Argentinean Rogelio Baldrich, not to mention the Spaniards: Tino Folgar, Delfín Pulido, Pepe Romeu, Emilio Vendrell, Juan Rosich and Adolfo Sirvent. Therefore, Juan García thought that the zarzuela would offer him better opportunities, and he accepted the proposal of composer Francisco Alonso to sing the role of Ginés in the world première of La picarona, on 6 February 1930 at the Teatro Eslava in Madrid. It was a triumph for Alonso and for García. The tenor recorded the main selections from that zarzuela for the Parlophon label.

On 27 September 1930, Juan García sang at the Teatro Campoamor, in Oviedo, a "recital lírico" with the soprano Matilde Revenga.

The year 1931 started with his only presentation at the famous Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. On 2 January, he sang in a special performance for the benefit of the Press Association of Barcelona. The program included act II of Massenet's Manon, sung by the soprano Matilde Revenga and the Greek tenor Cristy Solari. Then came the first act of Il barbiere di Siviglia sung by Juan García and the Spanish baritone Marcos Redondo as Figaro. The conductor was Antonino Votto. Next followed an aria concert in which Juan García also sang, and finally the zarzuela El dúo de La africana by Manuel Fernández Caballero, sung by Matilde Revenga, Juan García and Aníbal Vela. The conductor was Antonio Capdevila.

On 9 April 1931, he premiered another "new" zarzuela: La moza vieja by Pablo Luna, at the Teatro Calderón in Madrid, with Selica Pérez Carpio, Flora Pereira and Aníbal Vela. García sang the role of Pepe el riojano.

His third and last world premiere of a zarzuela was on 24 March 1933: El ama by Jacinto Guerrero, at the Teatro Ideal in Madrid, with María Badía and Luis Sagi-Vela. García sang the role of Clemente.

Of course he sang in many "new" zarzuelas even though he was not the creator of the role. Such is the case of La ventera de Alcalá by Pablo Luna, Martierra by Jacinto Guerrero, La meiga by Jesús Guridi as well as La castañuela and La linda tapada by Francisco Alonso. Not to forget the "traditional" repertoire like Doña Francisquita, Los gavilanes, El huésped del sevillano, El caserío, Los de Aragón and El dúo de La africana, where he was particularly successful.

It was in 1933 that the young composer Juan Quintero wrote the music for a beautiful song "Morucha" that would become García's "war horse" in his many theatre and radio concerts. The words of that song were written by García himself, and it was first presented to the public after the show of the film El Danubio azul at Madrid's Rialto cinema. The tenor had to sing it three times!!

This was the opportunity to change, once again, his artistic career. He decided to form his own musical group with twelve musicians: "Juan García y su Orquesta". They made their debut on 24 May 1934 in Madrid's Capitol cinema. For more than a year, Juan García and his Orchestra succesfully toured Spain and Portugal, performing popular and classical songs, and the "obligatory" jotas, the songs of his native land, Aragón.

In 1935 Juan García acted and sang in two musical shorts filmed in Spain. The first one was Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si, or La vida privada de un tenor (The private life of a tenor), with Conchita Leonardo, Amalia Sánchez Ariño and José Martín. The second one was Corre, mulilla, with the actor Ricardo Núñez.

The grave political situation in Spain leading to the atrocious Civil War forced Juan García to accept a contract offered by Radio Beldrano in Buenos Aires (Argentina). He left Spain on 19 March 1936, and never returned. In Buenos Aires, he started singing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 9 pm. He made Argentina his second beloved country. There he met and married a French lady, Lucía Ruhliez. Though he never returned to Spain, he kept it always in his heart, and Spanish music and popular "jotas" were always present in his performances.

In the summer of 1940, he visited Chile, and sang at the Casino in Viña del Mar and in Santiago's theatres and radio stations. He also recorded for RCA in Chile.

Juan García died in Buenos Aires on 14 August 1969 from a heart disease.

JUAN GARCÍA'S DISCOGRAPHY

The tenor recorded 212 sides for different companies. In 1925, he made eight records for Regal (Spanish Columbia). His biggest output was for Parlophon (Spain): 179 records. For La Voz de su Amo (HMV) he made twelve records, and for Odeon seven. His last eight records in Spain were for Columbia. As we have already said, he recorded six songs in Chile for RCA Victor. It seems that his last record was the theme song from the Spanish film Marcelino, pan y vino, composed by Pablo Sorozábal and recorded for RCA in Buenos Aires in 1955.

Juan García recorded only two opera arias: "Se il mio nome" from Il barbiere di Siviglia (with guitar played by the tenor) and "Il sogno" from Manon. Though his recorded output was mainly sung in Spanish, he also sang "Panis angelicus" (César Franck) in Latin, and the Italian songs "Vieni sul mar", "Mattinata" (Leoncavallo) and "Notturno d'amore" (Riccardo Drigo's Serenade). He recorded many zarzuela arias and duets. They included La picarona, La moza vieja and El ama, but lots of others as well. He recorded two songs by the Chilean composer Osmán Pérez Freire: "Ay ay ay" and "El delantal de la china". He made records with songs from contemporary films like El Danubio azul, El congreso se divierte, Desfile de candilejas, Gloria que mata, La canción del día (the first Spanish sound film, with music by Jacinto Guerrero), El precio de un beso (a film with José Mojica) and El canto del ruiseñor (the first musical biography of tenor Julián Gayarre, with tenor Pepe Romeu heading the cast). He recorded several tangos: "Rinconcito", "Río, ríe", "Ella", "No te rías" and above all, "Cicatrices" (by Adolfo R. Avilés) that has again García playing the guitar himself. Several songs by American composer Mabel Wayne: "Ramona", "Chiquita" and "En un pueblito de España". Composers F. Ledesma ("Mujer morena" and "Corre, mulilla") and José Luis Mediavilla ("Coqueta", "Mi tierra", "La noche en la aldea") wrote songs for him. Beyond that, waltzes, pasodobles, blues, zortzicos, Catalonian songs and many, many popular "jotas" from his native land, Aragón. He sang "A mi madre" (by Juan Quintero) in memory of his mother, and "A mi cieguecito" (To my little blind man), dedicated to his blind father.
Juan Dzazópulos, March 2008

I would like to thank Juan Dzazópulos for the biographical notes and recordings (Morucha, Barbiere di Siviglia, La picarona, El ama, Ay ay ay, Siete canciones and Las nueve de la noche).

I would like to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the recording (Barberillo alegre).