CASTEGNARO, Lola

María Dolores “Lola” Castegnaro Catellani was a Costa Rican composer, pianist, singer, conductor and music educator. She was born in San José on 17 May 1900 into an Italian musical family. Her first teachers in piano and singing included her father, the Italian-born pianist and composer Alvise Castegnaro. She continued her education at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan and the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna.
Castegnaro began performing as a singer and pianist while still young. Her earliest documented composition, the piano piece Recuerdos de España, was written in Milan in 1926. Between 1933 and 1941 she lived in Paris, where eleven of her songs were composed and published. Several were recorded by prominent singers, including Tino Rossi, Lucienne Dugard and Vanni Marcoux; Lasciati amare was later performed by Montserrat Caballé.
She returned to Costa Rica in 1941, teaching singing, working as an accompanist and conducting operatic performances. During this period, she became the first Costa Rican woman known to have conducted an orchestra. In 1945 she settled in Mexico City, where she continued her musical career and also worked as a music critic.
Castegnaro wrote principally lyrical songs in a cosmopolitan salon style, frequently drawing upon Spanish, French, Italian, Mexican and Costa Rican subjects and dance rhythms. Her catalogue also includes piano, orchestral and theatrical music. Notable compositions include the piano pieces Tango, Tarantella and Vals lento; the orchestral works Lluvia de plata and Himno de paz; the stage work Mirka; and the songs La casita, Lasciati amare, Panis Angelicus, Sueño de amor and Ojos perversos. She died in Mexico City on 28 June 1979.