Confirmed by CMPR – Pablo Elvira Jr. was indeed the first Puerto Rican to establish an opera house in the United States

Pablo Elvira Jr. was the first Puerto Rican to establish an opera house in the United States.

In August 2023, we received an email from Ms. Amy Tarshis requesting information about Pablo Elvira Jr., baritone. Tarshis was collecting data and researching about Pablo Elvira Jr.'s participation as one of the main figures in the establishment of an opera house in Bozeman, Montana in the United States, as well as being the first Puerto Rican to do so. This research was done by Karine Ortiz (circulation assistant), and Samuel O. González (Librarian and Reference Officer) of the Amaury Veray Library of the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico.

After several months of research, consulting resources from the Puerto Rican collection of the Amaury Veray Library, volume 7 (Music) of the Great Encyclopedia of Puerto Rico, newspaper clippings from the 1970s to the 2000s, not finding information that contradicted this fact, we confirmed that, in effect, Pablo Elvira Jr. was the first Puerto Rican to establish an opera house in the United States.

The report was broadcast on September 19, 2024 on the One Caribbean Television channel, and by the YouTube channel under the same name.