José Eleuterio Brito Aragonés, known as Eduardo Brito, was a Dominican opera and zarzuela baritone singer. He is considered the national singer of the Dominican Republic.
He was born in the Blanco section of Luperón, Puerto Plata, on January 21, 1906. He began his career at the age of 15 singing serenades, after which he joined the Sexteto Morel in Puerto Plata. In 1924 he won first prize in Santiago de los Caballeros with the song “Amar, that’s all” in the competition sponsored by Soap Candado.
He became the only Dominican to be hired on the stages of the Spanish zarzuela. He sang “La Virgen Morena” in the zarzuela of Madrid, and put his voice on the zarzuela “Los Gavilanes”. They were hits in his voice “Lamento slave” and “My life is singing.”
He sang merengues, guarachas, traveled to Colombia, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. He died at the age of 39 in Nigua, San Cristóbal, on January 5, 1946.
As a posthumous tribute to his career, the main hall of the National Theater of Santo Domingo initially bore his name, later called Eduardo Brito National Theater.
In 2012, a station on Line 2 of the Santo Domingo Metro was named after him.
Through ordinance 15-2014 of the La Romana City Council, the Councilor Wanchy Medina places his name on the old Fifth Street of the sector called Villa Pereyra, in La Romana.
Disease
He was suffering from cerebral syphilis and this condition caused delusions and other nervous disorders. For this reason, he received numerous injections of bismuth between 1942 and 43. It is a very painful phase of his existence that would not end until his death, which took place on January 5, 1946 at the Nigua shelter.