Federico Chueca

Federico Chueca ( born May 5, 1846 in Madrid, † July 20, 1908 ) was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer.

He began first at the Madrid Conservatory studies as a pianist, but then switched to medicine. During this time he took part in a student uprising and was sentenced to a prison term. In prison he began to compose. With the resulting there Waltz Suite " Lamentos de un preso " he attracted the attention of the then very popular in Madrid musician and composer Barbieri, who continued the work for orchestra and brought to the performance. After his release Chueca therefore took the music back and turned, sometimes with Barbieri and other composers of zarzuela to. This then rediscovered genre it was very successful.

Chueca's music was very popular and entertaining, especially satirical materials he could perfect for the stage to implement its Zarzuela " La Gran Via " experienced in Madrid 800 performances and then went around the world. In addition to several other successful works of this genre, for which he also wrote the lyrics for the part, he created a few dances, his name is inextricably linked with the great period of Zarzuela in the second half of the 19th century. It is also known to be " Saniete lirico " El Bateo, which was premiered in 1901 at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid.