Berutti, Arturo (1862–1938)

Arturo Berutti (b. 27 March 1862; d. 3 January 1938), Argentine composer. Born in San Juan, Argentina, Berutti studied composition with his father, a composer and pianist, and with Ignacio Álvarez. Later, in Buenos Aires, he was a student of Nicolás Bassi's. At twenty he published his fantasia Ecos patrióticos and began writing a series of articles in the Revista Mefistófeles to promote musical nationalism. After winning an official scholarship, Berutti traveled to Germany and enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory (1884), where he studied with Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn. In 1887 the Stuttgart Orchestra premiered his Obertura Andes. He composed two symphonies on Latin American subjects; Rivadavia and Colombiana (both in 1888). After traveling to Paris, he settled in Milan, where he wrote the Sinfonía Argentina (1890) and Vendetta, his first opera, which premiered at the Teatro Lirico in Vercelli. In 1893 his Evangelina was performed at Milan's Teatro Alhambra.

Berutti, like the Brazilian Antônio Carlos Gomes, was one of the few South American composers whose operas met with success in Italy. He composed Pampa (1897), the first Argentine opera based on the native drama of Juan Moreira. It was followed by Taras Bulba (1895), which premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Yupanki (1899), Khrysé (1903), and Los héroes (1909), based on an incident of the de Rosas period. He also composed Facundo Quiroga and El espectro, both unpublished, and Horrida Nox, the first Argentine opera with a Spanish libretto. Although based on Latin American subjects, all of Berutti's operas—as was true of other Latin American operas of the time—were European and classical in style and musical structure. While he was a passionate promoter of nationalism, as a composer Berutti is aesthetically linked to the romantic tradition. With short trips to Argentina, he resided in Europe until 1903, when he returned to Buenos Aires, where he continued to compose until his death. In addition to operas and symphonies, he composed orchestral works and vocal and piano pieces.

See alsoMusic: Art Music .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rodolfo Arizaga, Enciclopedia de la música argentina (1971).

Gérard Béhague, Music in Latin America (1979); New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 2 (1980).

Additional Bibliography

Aguilar, Gonzalo Moisés. "The National Opera: A Migrant Genre of Imperial Expansion." Translated by Kathryn Auffinger. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 12:1 (March 2003): 83-91.

                                    Susana Salgado