The widow of César Ponce de León, Argentine baritone who for years shared a poster with the greats of bel canto, has donated the particular collection of scores that the singer treasured to the archives of the School of Music of Poble Nou de Benitatxell. The widow herself, Lola Pedreño, personally delivered the pieces to the director of the School of Music, Antonio Catalá.
Aida y The Traviata of Verdi, as well as a rare example of Mass Tango, are some of the scores that are part of this exclusive collection. "I think it's the best place where they can be, maybe someday someone will appreciate them and value how they deserve. I know that he would be happy with my decision, taking into account that my husband was involved in the fundraising for the purchase of instruments of the first band of music of Poble Nou de Benitatxell in the 80 years ", commented Pedreño at the time of the donation.
César Ponce de León, or Cesare de León had visited El Poble Nou de Benitatxell at the beginning of the 80. He left the music in search of personal independence. His beginnings in singing were linked to cabarets, as he sang tangos at night in different cabarets of Buenos Aires.
It was the same musicians who accompanied him in those first nocturnal performances that advised him to take more seriously his own potential as a singer. The 25 years went to Italy with a scholarship to study singing at the conservatory of Venice, where he began learning by the hand of Mariano Stabile.
They were five years of studies with all the expenses paid in which he worked hard. In the following years he performed in the main concert halls of Italy as in the Scala in Milan, and even made recitals in the RAI. In Spain he recorded four zarzuelas with the orchestra of the Teatro Lírico de Barcelona and was responsible along with the Catalan soprano Montserrat Caballé for the first performance in Italy of the work Spain in the heart, by the composer Luigi Nono. His ashes rest in his beloved Buenos Aires, where the widow traveled to take them, fulfilling the last wish of the baritone.
