Salazar, Lalita

Person

Salazar, Lalita

1921-2002

Maria Eulalia “Lalita” Salazar Laine (de McIntire) was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1921 to José Salazar y Roges, a civil engineer, and Eulalia Laine Garasche, who came from a wealthy sugar plantation family in Matanzas. She had one brother, José Dámaso Salazar. Lalita Salazar spent her youth in Havana before moving to the U.S. for her high school education at Academy of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic school, in Torresdale, Pennsylvania. In Havana, she received musical training at an early age, coached by Paul Csonka, the choral director of the Philharmonic Orchestra, and by the former Italian opera singer Julia Lucignani. Music would become a central part of Salazar’s life, and she reportedly said, "Anything I do has some connection with music."

Salazar moved from Cuba to the U.S. to continue her music education in voice. She studied for one year in New York with George Ferguson and Henry Jacobi but suffered from a vocal cord injury, which affected the quality of her voice. She sought the help of Herbert Wall in Hollywood, California, who had studied under the famous Polish opera star Jean de Revsky. Salazar trained intensively with Wall and she eventually recovered and went on to sing mezzo-soprano with the Los Angeles and San Francisco Light Opera at Wall’s recommendation. While there she sang in the choral performances "New Moon" and also had a small solo part in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Light Opera Company choir’s production of “Song of Norway,” which went to Broadway.

When her student visa expired, Salazar moved back to Cuba where she continued to perform. She made LP recordings of Cuban folk songs; appeared in the feature film "Cuba Canta y Baila;" had guest appearances on NBC radio in New York, BBC in London, Radio Nationale in Paris; and fulfilled long-term contracts in Rio de Janiero and London. She attended the Municipal Conservatory of Havana and studied solfege, theory, harmony, and piano and had numerous recitals sponsored by the Ministry of Culture. Her life would soon change due to the two key events of meeting her husband, Robert L. McIntire, who was an executive for the American company Sears Roebuck, and the Cuban revolution of 1959.

Memories from Lalita Salazar’s relative Ofelia Salazar Butler reveal that Lalita met her husband reportedly when he sought her out backstage after a recital where she sang the popular Cole Porter song "So in Love'' to tell her how much he enjoyed her performance. In 1952, they were married, two years after their original meeting. Salazar took on the roles of wife and mother, limiting her professional career to occasional appearances for a while. She had two sons, Robert Anthony, born 1953, and John Charles, born 1957. The Cuban revolution of 1959 forced her husband back to the U.S. as American and private businesses such as Sears Roebuck were nationalized by the Castro government. During a short time living in Miami, Salazar performed with the Opera Guild of Greater Miami from 1960-61 and sang the role of Countess with Renata Tebaldi in Andrea Chénier, an opera by Umberto Giordano which tells the story of a poet executed during the French revolution. She and her family then moved to South Texas, where Salazar’s parents and other relatives had relocated after fleeing Cuba. There, Salazar studied part-time at Lamar University, and then at Midwestern University in Wichita Falls, Texas. She auditioned for the Dallas Opera Company and was offered a contract but canceled it due to family responsibilities. Regardless, from 1963-70, Salazar participated in musical theater productions of Funny Girl, Man of La Mancha, The King and I, Can-Can, Bye Bye Birdie, and directed a production of “Brigadoon” in Port Arthur in 1964, and she performed the role of Prince Orlofsky, in "Die Fledermaus" with Beaumont Civic Opera in 1963. She also sang in the Methodist Church Chancel Choir in 1964 and the Choir of Midwestern University from 1965-66.

Salazar’s husband was transferred to an executive position at Sears Roebuck in Venezuela. They lived in Caracas, Venezuela, and Lima, Peru, until McIntyre’s overseas assignment ended in 1982. In Caracas, Salazar founded a women's choir, The Caracas Women's Chorale, which was sponsored by the Venezuelan-American Association of University Women. The group performed for charitable institutions, cultural groups, and the American Embassy. In Peru, Salazar directed the Lima Women's Chorale, performing regularly including for a gala commemorating United Nations' Day with the Lima Symphony in 1972. Salazar also continued to perform in musical theater productions with Little Theatre. Salazar performed solo recitals in Peru and Ecuador sponsored by the United States Information Service from 1970-77 and in 1975 did Viennese operetta presentations for the Municipal Theatre in Caracas. Ofelia reports that Lalita Salazar was well-known in the English-speaking community of Caracas and participated in social and civic activities, including teaching music at a school for the children of Barrio Las Minas.

When Salazar’s husband’s overseas assignment in South American concluded, they moved back to the U.S. and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There Salazar earned a BA in Music from Chestnut Hill College, majoring in voice, in May 1986. She performed with the Chestnut Hill college choir from 1982-86 and the competitive group, the Madrigal Singers from 1985-86. She then earned her M.A. in Music at Temple University in 1992, singing in the Temple University Choir from 1987-88.

Salazar was perhaps best known for the 3-volume LP, “Así Cantaba Cuba” performed with Las Hermanas Martí and Ana Margarita Martínez Casado, as well as other albums of popular and folkloric Cuban music, such as “Día y noche de mi Habana,” released in 1972 and accompanied by la Orquesta de Lucho Macedo and the guitarists Manuel Fajardo y Andrés Palacios. She passed away in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2002.

Final

Full

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY (butlerlink.com) - http://www.butlerlink.com/Biographies/Salazar/Lalita_Resume1.html

Lalita Salazar McIntire (butlerlink.com) - http://www.butlerlink.com/Biographies/Salazar/lalita_salazar_mcintire.htm

Vinilos Peruanos: Lalita Salazar - Día y Noche de mi Habana (1972) - https://vinilosperuanos.blogspot.com/2015/04/lalita-salazar-dia-y-noche-de-mi-habana.html

Biographical note written by Kate Villa, 2020-2021 UGrow Fellow for Manuscripts and Archives Management, and edited by Amanda Moreno, May 2021.