Alejandro Garcia Caturla is regarded as one of the founders of the Cuban Afro-Cubanism style, though often overshadowed by his contemporary Roldán. After attempts to convince Carpentier to write an Afro-Cuban ballet for him failed, the opportunity to collaborate with Carpentier finally presented itself in the form of La Manita en el Suelo, an opera buffa in one act and five scenes, drawing from a combination of both visual and musical elements of African, European, and Latin heritage within Cuban folklore. Carpentier’s collaboration with Caturla was meant to unite the myths and legends of all three cultures, each personified as characters in the story, into one vibrant and accessible production. Due in part to Caturla’s untimely death, La Manita en el Suelo was never performed in its entirety with the staging that Caturla and Carpentier envisioned. Drawing from the works of Charles White, Malena Kuss, and others, this project examines nationalism, surrealism, and folklore in Alejandro Garcia Caturla and Alejo Carpentier’s puppet opera, La Manita en el Suelo, and offers a fresh analysis of the work with details instructions on the author’s plans to revive it through live storytelling and stop-motion animation.

Spanish nationalist composer Joaquín Turina (1882-1949) is renowned for his Franco-Andalusian style; however, much less is known about his life and compositions before he studied in Paris and developed his signature sound. Turina’s early zarzuelas, La Copla (1904) and Fea y con gracia (1905), are often regarded as his earliest stage works; however, they are predated by a little-known opera called La Sulamita. Written during Turina’s teenage years in Seville, La Sulamita is an opera in three acts that is very different from any other stage work that he ever composed. The young Turina had intended for it to be staged in Madrid; however, it was never published or performed. Often mentioned in passing, La Sulamita is seldom discussed beyond these points in most accounts and biographies of Turina’s life. La Sulamita is nevertheless a significant work with the potential to say a lot about Turina’s early compositional style. Although it contains some of the exotic and romantic themes that appear in his later works, La Sulamita is unusual in its depiction of biblical themes in Pedro Balgañón’s libretto given Turina’s conservative and religious upbringing. It demonstrates that his ambition to compose a work of great influence and magnitude took root long before the successes of Margot (1914) and Jardín de Oriente (1923). This project aims to situate La Sulamita in the broader context of Turina’s works and shed light upon this seldom-remarked-upon era of Turina’s life. It begins with an introduction to Turina’s early life followed by a side-by-side Spanish and English translation of the libretto and a literary analysis of its plot and characters. It offers a transcription of the first act as well as a list of considerations and modifications to facilitate modern performance. A final, fourth chapter offers creative suggestions for incorporating La Sulamita and other nearly forgotten stage works in an educational and community setting.