Sulle tracce di Nicolás  e Diego Peñalver y Cárdenas, nobili cubani. Loro relazione con Rossini, (On the tracks of Nicolas and Diego Peñalver Cárdenas, Cuban noblemen. Their relation with Rossini), in “Bollettino del Centro Rossiniano di studi”, XLV, 2005, Fondazione Rossini di Pesaro, pp.49-143.

The critical edition of the Cantata La riconoscenza / Il vero omaggio, published in 2003 by the Fondazione Rossini of Pesaro, edited by Patricia B.Brauner,  has given the opportunity to analyze the relations with Rossini and a family of Cuban origins, the Peñalvers y Cárdenas. Infact Rossini dedicated to Nicolas Peñalver a version of the same Cantata, entitled “L’augurio felice” on the occasion of his wedding; this version is held today at the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. The title-page bears the writing:

“Cantata for 4 voices with choirs / by Maestro Rossini / dedicated by the same to D.n Nicola de Pegnalverd (sic for Pegnalver) on the occasion of his Wedding with  Maria de la Conception/ In the autumn 1823”

The genesis of the Cantata and the events leading to its various versions until The Augurio Felice, dedicated to Nicolas Peñalver y Cárdenas, have been described and examined in full by Patricia Brauner in the Preface to the Rossini Critical Edition. The Augurio felice is basically La riconoscenza with changes to the text made necessary by the new occasion; in this new version, the Cantata was performed in Paris, conducted by Rossini himself, during his short French staying in autumn 1823 at the Home of Countess de Merlin, Maria de las Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo.

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