Comprised of an introduction and 11 essays, this edited volume examines musical representations of national and ethnic identities in Latin America. Editor William Beezley introduces the text by promising to focus on “especially operatic compositions, some with indigenous themes, and the rise of national cultural identity in Latin America” (p. 1). Several of the essays, including two by Beezley, have this priority, yet seven authors make limited or no mention of opera, dealing instead with such diverse topics as Mexican radio, rock-influenced music in Cuba, tango and folk music in Argentina, Brazilian carnival, and music in Mexican film. Despite the slightly misleading framing, the individual essays contribute usefully to histories of music, operatic and otherwise, in Latin America.
The volume brings together historians and musicologists, resulting in a variety of methodological approaches to Latin American music. Historians Sonia Robles and Jerry D. Metz Jr. analyze rich archival sources to show...
