Brígida Frías de López Buchardo From “cantatrice” to “folklorista”: a Radio Broadcast Operation

Abstract

This article describes and analyses the involvement of Argentine soprano Brígida Frías de López Buchardo in radio broadcasting, during the 30’s in Buenos Aires, as the representative performer of the natio­ nalist song for voice and piano. Two paradigmatic cases are scrutinized to reveal the change in the construction of her media figure operated by the radio broadcast itself. The first case considers that her auditions at El Mundo broadcasting (1936) constitute an institutional strategy to bind its contents to those of the elite culture. The second one analyses her participation at a live music show broadcasted by Splendid (1937), and the way this radio program assimilated her artistic development to the folk movement that was consolidating in those days.