Federico Moreno Torroba

Zarzuela and the classical guitar occupied Federico Moreno Torroba for most of the twentieth century. Born in Madrid into a musical family, he studied at the city's conservatory and first made his name with symphonic works, and developed a career in lyric theatre and guitar music. Luisa Fernanda, premiered in 1932, is one of his zarzuelas; La chulapona and El poeta followed. For the guitar he wrote the Sonatina, Castles of Spain, the Suite castellana and several concertos, most of it out of a long working association with Andrés Segovia, and in doing so he enlarged the modern Spanish repertoire for the instrument. He also directed theatrical companies and took zarzuela abroad. La chulapona reached the stage in 1934, and in 1946 he set up a zarzuela company with the singers Placido Domingo Ferrer and Pepita Embil, taking it through Latin America for two years; their son sang the title part of El poeta when that work appeared in 1980. He never played the guitar himself, and a number of the guitar pieces carry dedications to Maria Angelica Funes. He lived from 1891 to 1982.