Composer
Biography
Navarre-born and Milan-trained, Emilio Arrieta studied in Madrid and then at the Milan Conservatory with Nicola Vaccai; his early Ildegonda was well received in Italy. Back in Spain, under the patronage of Queen Isabella II, he wrote for Madrid's theatres and turned increasingly to zarzuela at the moment of its great nineteenth-century revival. Marina was given as a zarzuela in 1855 and expanded into an opera in 1871. He taught at the Madrid Conservatory and in time directed it. He died in 1894. After returning from Italy in 1852, he turned to zarzuela with encouragement from Joaquín Gaztambide, following the success of Francisco Barbieri's Jugar con fuego in 1851. He took charge of the Madrid Conservatory in 1868, and his work combines Italian operatic training with Spanish dance forms; Marina has been issued repeatedly on disc and on video.