
Emilio Arrieta (1821 -
1894) |
The son of a
country landowner, Pascual Emilio Arrieta y Corera was born in Puente la
Reina, Navarra, 21 October 1821. At the age of ten he was removed to the care
of his well-to-do sister in Madrid, where he studied sol-fa sight
reading with Castillo and showed early signs of talent. Several
adventurous trips to Italy culminated in an extended period of study at the
Milan Conservatory (1841-5) under several maestri including
Vaccai, and where he became friends with Amilcare Ponchielli,
composer of La Gioconda. He eventually won First Prize on his graduation
and wrote Ildegonda (1846), a three act opera to an Italian text by the
leading librettist Temistocle Solera, which was to be successfully
performed in several Italian cities.
He returned to Madrid the same year, becoming a fast favourite of
the Queen, Isabel II. She appointed the young composer to a succession of
posts, culminating in his investiture as Composer Director for the Teatro Real
in December 1849, two months after the presentation of Ildegonda at the
new Teatro Real. A new Italian opera La conquista de Granada followed in
1850, again to a text by Solera. He taught at the Madrid Conservatory from
1857, and became its director after the "Glorious" Revolution of 1868, his
leading pupils being Chapí and Bretón; but after the final deposition of
Isabel II his influence declined. Two years after suffering a stroke he died at
his home in Madrid on 11 February 1894.
Conservative
in his politics, passionately italianate in his musical tastes, Arrieta took
little part in the initial establishment of the Teatro de la Zarzuela,
though he did contribute a short work El sonámbulo to the new
venture (1856) as well as having a hand in several other pieces. Later on he
wrote zarzuelas consistently: but in spite of this he remained, together with
his friend and collaborator the great poet-dramatist Adelado López de
Ayala, a significant rallying figure for artistic opposition to his exact
contemporary Barbieri and the other founders
of the national school. They in their turn suspected him of subverting their
efforts to foster musical theatre in the vernacular, although in time personal
relations between Barbieri and Arrieta mellowed.
Not surprisingly, many of his zarzuelas are written in a more
italianate style than those of his contemporaries. Amongst his regular
librettists, Antonio García
Gutiérrez (the celebrated author of El trovador)
regularly brought out his best work, and a zarzuela such as the one-act El
grumete (1853) is a fine work worth reviving, although Azón
Visconti (1858), Dos coronas and Llamada y tropa (both 1861)
are critically respected too. The intriguingly-named La tabernera de Londres
(1862), and a sequel to El grumete entitled La vuelta del
corsario (1863) did not enjoy comparable approval.
Romanzas from El grumete and El dominó azul
(both 1853, the latter to a text by Camprodón) are occasionally heard; but
many of his later successes, such as El conjuro (1866), El planeta
Venus (1858) and La Guerra Santa (1879, based on Jules Verne's
1876 novel Michel Strogoff) have sunk without trace. His last
significant success was the ambitious San Franco de Sena (1883).
The eternally
popular three-act opera Marina (1871,
adapted by Carrión from
Camprodón's two-act zarzuela of 1855) is the one work which keeps his
reputation alive today. It remains an admirable barometer of Arrieta's artistic
personality. Gently mellifluous, elegant and gracious in the manner of
Donizetti or Ricci, it offers great opportunities for the leading soprano and
tenor, but leaves little space for the more pungent popular musical song and
dance forms found in the works of Barbieri and Gaztambide. Arrieta's pleasant, italianate music
certainly requires star singers to bring it to life, and this may be felt
nowadays to be its limitation as well as its undoubted strength.
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