Viva Concha! Rose of the Presidio

This chamber musical by Candace Forest is based on an actual 1806 San Francisco romance between Commandante Arguello’s beautiful daughter Concepción and a Russian nobleman, the explorer Nikolai Rezanov. Soaring arias, tender duets and rousing ensemble pieces tell this tale of passion and politics in early California.

Back Story

While shopping for a birthday/valentine present for my husband, I ran across a book titled “Great Romances of Early California.” Since he’s a history buff, I thought it was the perfect gift. It turned out to be quite a miraculous one too.

When I read the chapter titled “California’s First Native Born Nun,” I was literally “thunderstruck” and almost instantaneously began writing what turned into Viva Concha! Rose of the Presidio, a chamber musical/light opera about the ill-fated romance between Concepción “Concha” Arguello, the commandante’s daughter, and Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, the so-called “Columbus of Russia.”

I worked on this project for a decade and finally, in 2016, it premiered at San Francisco’s historic Victoria Theatre, starring Aimée Puentes and Codrut Birsan as the star-crossed lovers. There are enough “miraculous” moments involved with the creation of this work to write a book, which is in fact what I’m doing.

A CD of the musical highlights and a DVD of the production from 2006 are both currently available. For more details, please visit www.vivaconcha.com