Alice Felici: Notes on a Great Puerto Rican Soprano
By Nestor Murray-Irizarry, Historian
Very few times, at 76 years old, have I regretted not being able to write a book about one of our most internationally renowned artists: Alice Felici Chevalier. But its study and research have been very difficult for me. Resources are very limited as has been the leisure time available.
Alice was one of the first Puerto Rican sopranos to be invited to sing with the most successful and emblematic artists of her time. It is very difficult to find a soprano of her generation who, at that time, offered Europe such a wonderful display of Puerto Rican artistic talent. I hope that these notes will inspire some young people to continue with this task and not allow our valued figures to be deposited in the cemetery of oblivion. I am sure that I am not wasting my breath and am not alone: silence and oblivion will be overcome.
Hail Alice Felici!
Alicia Margarita Amelia Felici Chevalier, artistically known as Alice Felici, was one of the most outstanding sopranos of her generation and one of the most forgotten in our musical history. Of beautiful figure and beautiful voice, her elegance led her, in 1907, to be a candidate for Queen of the Carnival of the Spanish Casino of Ponce. She was the daughter of Domingo Henry Felici-Pieretti and a woman from Ponce, Alicia Chevalier-Chardon. Alice Felici's date of birth and death are being researched, but there is no doubt that her birthplace was Ponce. Alice was the second daughter of six siblings: Matilde, Alice, Palmira, Jorge, Enrique, and Elena.
The Felici-Chevalier family held prestige in Puerto Rican high society, particularly in La Perla del Sur [Ponce]. Her father, supported by French capital, was a prominent Corsican emigrant proprietor, merchant, and farmer, and one of the main shareholders of the historic financial institution, Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño. He was the undisputed leader, in 1903, of the country's Chamber of Commerce, a prominent member of the Casino Español de Ponce, and Vice Consul of Belgium in Ponce. He died in 1907.
Alice's maternal uncle, Enrique, in 1884, had a large car factory. He was a farmer, and in 1899 was elected Councillor and then Mayor of Ponce for the Republican Party (1900-1904). He was also Marshall of the District Court of Ponce and, in 1893, his residence was located in front of Ponce's Plaza Las Delicias. Her maternal aunt, Matilde, married Antonio Otero Arce in 1907, one of the owners of the music center and publisher Bazar Otero, known for its great contributions to the musical culture of Puerto Rico. Her brother, Enrique Felici, was a landowner and soldier, and her sister, Palmira Felici, also a singer, married A. Miramón, after which she abandoned her career.
Both families celebrated the dances and weddings of their children at their home. They were very fond of parties, and during the famous Ponce carnivals (1903), and on important city dates, they gave dances for their fabulous friends that lasted until the early morning hours.
Amalia Paoli, a Puerto Rican mezzo-soprano, organized an arts festival in 1907 at Ponce's Teatro La Perla. She was accustomed to inviting the city's best talent to the event. On that occasion, she invited Alice and her sister, Palmira, to sing. "The event began with a trio from the comic opera, Il Matrimonio Segreto by Cimarosa, and, in the first part of the program, included the sisters Alice and Palmira Felici, and Amalia Paoli. This trio received much applause. […] Alice Felici made a Micaela [a character from Bizet's Carmen] worthy of the work."
Alice entered the Paris Conservatory of Music in the early 1900s. In 1912 and 1913, together with Margarita Callejo, she received a financial grant from the Chamber of Delegates to continue her studies at that prestigious institution.
She was much loved and applauded in and out of her country. In 1911, the respectable Ladies' Club of San Juan organized a handsome arts festival for the benefit of Alice Felici, distinguished student of the Paris Conservatory of Music, wherein by participating in a singing contest, she achieved a special accésit, or recognition, for her interpretation of an operatic aria. For that occasion, the City Council of San Juan graciously ceded the Teatro Municipal. That night, Alice sang "Vissi d'arte" from the second act of Tosca, an aria from La Traviata, and the suite from the second act of Puccini's Madame Butterfly.
In 1913, Alice sang at the Teatro Municipal of San Juan. A chronicler wrote about our soprano's performance:
“Alice Felici, who will soon be an artist acclaimed by all audiences, gave her announced concert last night at the Municipal. It goes without saying that all of society went to the theater to applaud the gentile Alice; to reward the innate talent of this exquisite artist.
Those who heard her last year and again this year, say that evident in the future prima donna is obvious progress from her schooling, which allows us to foresee what Alice will become in several years.
She received ovations for the aria from Rigoletto, the song "Espanola," the aria from La Traviata, and the duet from the third act of Les Pêcheurs de Perles. Several times, her admirers covered the proscenium with flowers and at the end of the concert, while the audience applauded wildly, many doves were released, and a shower of flowers fell on the artist.
Miss Felici had a triumphant evening. She was the culminating figure, but other artists also stood out: the pianists Alicia Sicardo and Genoveva de Arteaga."
In 1915, she was invited to sing her special rendition of "Vissi d'Arte," the prayer aria from Tosca for the opening of the Ponce Orphan Asylum. In Europe, she gave other important performances, particularly in Spain and France. In 1924, already quite well known on the European opera scene, she took part in a major Spanish music festival in the amphitheater of the Paris Sorbonne before an audience of more than 1,000 people.
The singing was performed by the eminent Spanish soprano, Alice Felici. She was accompanied on the piano by the valiant Cuban pianist, composer, and musicologist of Spanish origin, Joaquin Nin, who interpreted compositions by Pablo Esteve-Grimau, Joaquin Turina, Isaac Alberniz, and Manuel de Falla. That same year, she was invited to Madrid to be part of the cast of a concert with an orchestra of 60 prominent musicians conducted by the famous French pianist, conductor, musicologist, and later professor at the Paris Conservatory of Music, Emile Georges Armand Ferte. In 1925, he accompanied the soprano Alice Felici and the violinist M.A. Asseln, in a concert at the casino in Dieppe, France.
In 1928, she participated in the Paris concert, ''Les Amis des Arts," together with the artists: Franco-Italian cellist, violist, and pioneer music therapist, disciple of Pablo Casals and of the Paris Conservatory of Music, Juliette Louise Alvin; the renowned quartets of Romuald Vandelle and Albert Zimmer; and the famous violin virtuoso and professor at the Paris Conservatory of Music, Rene Benedetti.
In 1930, she established her permanent residence in France but traveled occasionally to Puerto Rico.
Felici-Chevalier Family