Daniel Catán Porteny (April 3, 1949 – April 9, 2011) was a Mexican

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, writer and professor known particularly for his

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s and his contribution of the Spanish language to the international repertory. With a compositional style described as lush, romantic and lyrical, Catán's second opera, ''Rappaccini’s Daughter'', became the first Mexican opera in the United States to be produced by a professional opera company. Upon receiving international recognition, Catán's next opera, '' Florencia en el Amazonas'', became the first opera in Spanish to be commissioned by an opera company in the United States. Shortly after, Catán received a Plácido Domingo Award and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Award for his contributions to music. In 2004, Catán's opera '' Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies'' was premiered by the

Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an American opera company located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert and three local Houstonians,Giesberg, Robert I., Carl Cunningham, and Alan Rich. ''Houston Grand Opera at ...

. In September 2010, his opera ''

Il Postino ''Il Postino: The Postman'' (, ; the title used for the original US release) is a 1994 comedy-drama film co-written by and starring Massimo Troisi and directed by English filmmaker Michael Radford. Based on the 1985 novel '' Ardiente pacienci ...

'' was premiered by the

Los Angeles Opera The Los Angeles Opera, originally called the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, is an American opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth-largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler P ...

with

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

singing as Pablo Neruda, a role written specifically for him. Catán died while working on his next opera, ''Meet John Doe''. Catán's works also include vocal, chamber, orchestral and choral music as well as music for ballet, film and TV.

Early life and education

Catán was born in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

and was of

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

descent. He studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

and music at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

. He received a Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he studied with

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He was a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship recipient, recognized for his serial and electronic music. Biography ...

, James K. Randall, and

Benjamin Boretz Benjamin Aaron Boretz (born October 3, 1934) is an American composer and Music theory, music theorist. Life and work Benjamin Boretz was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Abraham Jacob Boretz and Leah (Yullis) Boretz. He graduated with a degree in ...

Career

Catán was the first Mexican composer to have an opera produced in the United States, when

San Diego Opera The San Diego Opera (SDO) is a professional opera company based in San Diego, California. The opera performs at the San Diego Civic Theatre. The San Diego Symphony serves as the orchestra for the opera. History San Diego Opera Guild was founded ...

produced his opera ''

Rappaccini's Daughter "Rappaccini's Daughter" is a Gothic short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne first published in the December 1844 issue of ''The United States Magazine and Democratic Review'' in New York, and later in various collections. It is about Giacomo Rappac ...

'' in March 1994. He has also composed orchestral and chamber works and film music. His style can be described as neo-impressionist. His music is richly lyrical, often painting evocative colours with the orchestral palette with soaring melodies atop. In addition to composition, Catán had a fruitful career as a writer on music and the arts, reflective of his knowledge of world literature. In 1998, Catán received the Plácido Domingo Award for his contribution to opera, and he received a

in 2000. His last completed opera, ''

'', whose premiere featured Plácido Domingo in the role of

Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...

, is based on the 1983 novel '' Ardiente paciencia'' by Antonio Skármeta and the 1994 film ''

'' by

Michael Radford Michael James Radford (born 24 February 1946) is an English film director and screenwriter. He began his career as a documentary director and television comedy writer before transitioning into features in the early 1980s. His best-known credi ...

; it premiered at the

in September 2010. Catán died aged 62 on April 8, 2011, in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, a few days after he attended rehearsals for ''Il Postino'' at the Moores Opera Center at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

. At the time of his death, Catán was a member of the faculty at

College of the Canyons College of the Canyons (COC) is a public community college in Santa Clarita, California. It comprises the Santa Clarita Community College District. The college is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and has campus loca ...

and had been commissioned by the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

to write a new opera, ''Meet John Doe.''

Compositional style

Catán composed his music in a

neo-Romantic The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social movements, that exist after and incorporate elements from the era of Romanticism. It has been used ...

and lyrical style. ''

Opera News ''Opera News'' was an American classical music magazine. It was published from 1936 to 2023 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild—a non-profit organization, located at Lincoln Center, that was founded to promote opera and support the Metropolitan ...

'' stated that his music had "a distinctive lushness that seemed of a piece with the twentieth century's great movie music yet remained unquestionably operatic in scope." Accountable to constraints of their commissions, Catán's compositions stand clearly self-contained. Music critic David Patrick Stearns wrote, "Though Catán's style was often compared to that of

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

and

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

, it changed with every work, from the lush nature painting of '' Florencia en El Amazonas'' (1996) to the Cuban ethnic influences of ''Salsipuedes'' (2004), and the more integrated sonorities that portrayed the inner emotions of ''Il Postino'' (2010). Other critics noted the influences of

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

and

Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has globally bec ...

with his orchestral structures. Of his own music Catán said, "I have inherited a very rich operatic tradition. In my work, I am proud to say, one can detect the enormous debt I owe to composers from

Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considere ...

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( ; ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

. But perhaps the greatest of my debts is having learnt that the originality of an opera need not involve the rejection of our tradition—which would be like blindly embracing the condition of an orphan—but rather the profound assimilation of it, so as to achieve the closest union between a text and its music." Catán also cited in many interviews

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

, and

Erich Wolfgang Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (; May 29, 1897 – November 29, 1957) was an Austrian composer and conductor, who fled Europe in the mid-1930s and later adopted US nationality. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential comp ...

among those who had most influenced his music and compositional style.

Personal life

Catán was married three times, the first two marriages ending with divorce. He and his first wife Liza had two children. He lived in

South Pasadena, California South Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 26,943, up from 25,619 at the 2020 census. It is located in the Western San Gabriel Valley. It is in area and lies betwe ...

at the time of his death.

Works

;Ballet *''Ausencia de flores'' (''Absence of Flowers'') (1983) ;Chamber and instrumental *''Quintet'' (1972) *''Trío'' (1982) *''Cuando bailas, Leonor'' (1984) *''Adagio (tema del amor)'' (1994) *''Encantamiento'', for

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

(2003) *''Sexteto'' (2003-2004) *''Concertino'' (2005) *''Divertimento'' (2005) *''Amaya'' (2009) ;Choral *''Cantata'' (1981) *''O, Pardon Me, Thou Bleeding Piece of Earth'' (2006) ;Film, theater and TV *''El medallón de Mantelillos'' (1982) *''Antonieta: A Musical'' (1992-1993) *''El vuelo del águila (Don Porfirio)'' (1994) *'' I'm Losing You'' (1996) ;Opera *''Encuentro en el ocaso'' (1979) *'' La hija de Rappaccini'' (1989) *'' La hija de Rappaccini'' (''Reduced alternate orchestration'') (1989) *'' Florencia en el Amazonas'' (1996) *'' Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies'' (1999) *''

'' (2010) *''Meet John Doe'' (''Incomplete'') (2010) ;Orchestral *''Hetaera Esmeralda'' (1975) *''El Árbol de la Vida: variaciones sinfónicas'' (''The Tree of Life'') (1980) *''En un Doblez del Tiempo'' (''A Fold in Time'') (1982) *''Tu son, tu risa, tu sonrisa'' (1991) *''El vuelo del águila'' (''Don Porfirio'') (''The Eagle's Flight'') (1994) *''Florencia en el Amazonas: Suite for Orchestra'' (2003) ;Solo Instrument *''Variaciones para piano ca'' (1977) *''Encantamiento'', for 2

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

s (1989) *''Vals “Don Porfirio”'' (1994) *''Son de Salsipuedes'' (1999) ;Solo Voice and Piano *''“Giovanni’s Aria”'' (1983-1989) *''“Contristada”'' (1991) *''“Del Destino”'' (1996) *''“Duet Act I (Now that I Have Found You)”'' (1992-1993) *''“Comprendo”'' (1992-1993) *''“Nothing can go Wrong”'' (1992-1993) *''“Song (When I am dead)”'' (1992-1993) *''“There were days”'' (1992-1993) *''“Trust, Antonieta…”'' (1992-1993) *''“You that think love…”'' (1992-1993) *''“Hail the World’s Soul and Mine!”'' (Undated) ;Soloist and Orchestra *''Ocaso de medianoche'' (1977) *''Mariposa de obsidiana'' (1984) *''Terra Final'' (1985) *''Caribbean Airs'' (2007) ;Books *''Partitura inacabada'' (1989)

References

External links

Official Website of Daniel Catán
* Daniel Catá
Papers
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

G. Schirmer Inc.
Daniel Catán's Music Publisher
A brief official biography authorized by the composer's estate.Anastasia Tsioulcas, "Daniel Catán, Composer Of Lyrical Operas, Dead At 62". ''National Public Radio'', "Deceptive Cadence" blog, 11 April 2011
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catan, Daniel 1949 births 2011 deaths 20th-century Sephardi Jews Alumni of the University of Southampton Alumni of the University of Sussex Jewish classical composers Mexican classical composers Mexican male classical composers Mexican opera composers Jewish opera composers Male opera composers Mexican Sephardi Jews Mexican people of Russian-Jewish descent Princeton University alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty Musicians from Mexico City