Joan Rosich

Joan Rosich is largely forgotten and particularly ill-documented, and I'm sure the reason is the embarassment that his memory inevitably causes: Rosich was born in Barcelona and between the two World Wars a prominent Catalan zarzuela tenor – and yet he later sided with Franco's fascists, something that few Catalans did and that was and is considered unforgivable in Catalonia.

There is currently no information as to Rosich's date of birth or debut; he was originally an opera tenor both at the Teatro Real in Madrid (where he sang des Grieux in Manon in the 1922/23 season, with Geneviève Vix) and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, where he appeared regularly from 1923 to 1931. His repertory also included Fernand, Duca or Rodolfo.

He gradually shifted his attention from opera to zarzuela, and premiered some Catalan works such as Jaime Pahissa's opera La princesa Margarida (Liceu, 1928), or most prominently the zarzuela La legió d'honor by Rafael Martínez Valls (Teatre Nou, Barcelona, 26 February 1930): a typical Catalan, and that means: politically progressive work, glorifying pacifism, and the resistance against dictatorship. (The dictatorship in question was Primo de Rivera's, however the dictator was overthrown one month before the world premiere.)

Rosich's infamous moment came in January 1940, when he participated in a very prominent Fascist event at the Liceu: the first act of Bretón's La Dolores was given in commemoration of Barcelona's conquest by Franco's army, one year earlier; and Rosich sang it with an altered text that alluded to the "glorious caudillo", Francisco Franco.

On the Catalan radio, Rosich sang frequently until his death.

Reference 1: Youtube channel "Ben Skofic", reference 2: Aria CD booklet ("50 tenors espanyols"), reference 3, reference 4: lazarzuela.webcindario.com (defunct)
Picture source: Youtube channel "zarzuelaoro"

I would like to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the recording.