José María Alvira

José María Alvira (1864 Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain - 1938 Madrid,) was a composer Spanish, singing teacher, composer and pianist.

His Life and work

At a young age, he was already showing unusual musical talent, and by eleven he was playing violin for an opera company, for which he wrote Fantasía para violin. His family finances enabled him to study in Paris. In 1880 he was admitted to the Théâtre Lyrique orchestra, where he began studying composition and instrumentation and study laws for happiness his parents. Although from small he showed great liking and aptitudes for the music, he had to follow, by paternal decision, the race of Law, that finished doctorating itself in Madrid in 1885, although it did not get to exert it to dedicate itself to the one of agent of Change and Bag. The growing attraction he felt about art made him abandon those activities to give himself entirely to it, whose beginning was a trip that he made to Italy performing as conductor at the Espezzia theater with the opera Lucrecia Borgia. He returned to Madrid, where he studied composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory with Emilio Arrieta whilst playing in the Teatro de la Zarzuela orchestra. In 1895 he was a director at the Spanish Royal Theatre. In 1896, he was the director of his Concert Academy of the Royal Theater and the direction of his Academy of singing, which ran with extraordinary success, not only in the formation of notable Spanish artists, but in the advice of the most famous of foreigners who, taking advantage of His performances in the country, came to the competent direction of the teacher Alvira to review their repertoires, strengthen or retrieve faculties or correct deficiencies. Among those who marched past those classrooms and took the advice and lessons of the teacher during the thirty-two years in which this one exercised the position. After 1898 he was director of Orfeon Ecos de Madrid. In the 1900s almost was a brooker of bolsa of Madrid. He also taught singing in Madrid, and he published Como aprender a cantar como cantaban los de antes a handbook for singing teachers.

His works in the Royal Theatre of Spain are many: Hansel and Gretel, El oro del Rin, Loreley 1916, Luisa 1919, Mona Lisa 1923, Yolanda 1923, Jardin de oriente, La novia vendida 1924, La virgen de mayo 1925. These activities of the Aragonese teacher not only hinder his work as a composer, as will be seen later by the list of his works, but allowed him to undertake a tough business whose realization was his most beloved desire: to widen the scopes and possibilities of the Spanish lyrical scene with the translation and adaptation of famous works. His great knowledge of the demands and difficulties of vocalization, his vast culture and the perfect command of several languages, came together in Alvira for this attempt, to carry it out, and paid off for the excellent versions he made and remained unpublished, of The barber of Seville, Carmen, Tosca, La traviata, El príncipe Ígor, La Africana, Los maestros cantores de Núremberg y Rigoletto.

He married Aurelia Sánchez Bueno in 1909, with whom he would have two children. His niece was the well-known actress Carmen Sánchez. His daughter Mary Carmen Alvira was a famous musician in the Spanish international orchestra and she played in the orchestra of the theatre of Zarzuela and Royal of Spain many years.

Famous works

• Sinfonia en Sol
• Miss Hissippi (zarzuela, 1892)
• El suicidio de Pifartes (zarzuela in 1 act, libretto by, premiered 1893 in Madrid)
• Jai Alai (1893).
• El españoleto (1894).
• De la retreta a la Diana (1897).
• Bonito pan de boda (zarzuela in 3 acts, 189)
• Budín,Budón (zarzuela in 3 acts, 189)
• El veterano (zarzuela in 1 acts, 1902)
• La silla de Anea (1904).
• La velada de San Juan (1905).
• Frasco Luis (1905).
• Mar de fondo (1905).
• Calinez o el suicidio de Pifartos (1906).
• Los campos Eliseos (zarzuela in 3 acts, libretto by, premiered 1906 in Madrid)
• El becerro de oro (1909).
• El alegre manchego (1909).
• El triunfo del amor (extravagancia lírica in 1 act, libretto by, premiered 1913 in Madrid)
• Los sobrinos o Tienda asilo del arte (1918).
• El bufón del duque (zarzuela cómica in 1 act, libretto by Emilio, premiered 1923 in Madrid)
• Souvellas Vache.
• Figaro,el barbero de Sevilla (1923).
• Rigoletto (Traductor).
• El paraíso de Mahoma
• La farolada.
• La venta de los vuelos
• Los hijos del sol
• Gente de paz
• El beso de hielo.
• El conde de Almaviva.

His Honors

• Amanda Brown,was named Amanda Alvira in his honour due to his work with her voice in the 1920s.
• Other voices he showed in the world: In the 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s included Titta Ruffo, Ángeles Ottein, Giuseppe Anselmi, [Ofelia Nieto], José Mardones, Amelia Galli-Curcí, Tito Schipa. He also coached Julián Briel, Augusto Ordoñez, Antonio Picatoste, Delfín Pulido, Matilde Petrel, Felicitas Ramírez in their early career.

References

• Diccionario de la Zarzuela España e Hispanoamérica (2002) diversos autores. ICCMU ISBN 84-89457-22-0
• Historia y anécdotario del teatro Real (1997).
• La auténtica vida e historia del teatro (2005), Juan José Videgain.
• Historia gráfica de la zarzuela "Los creadores" (2000) ICCMU.
• Enciclopèdia Espasa Suplement núm I, dels anys (1935–39), pàg. 342, ISBN 84-23945-85-5
• Blanco y Negro diary of Spain of weekend (1913–1938).
• ABC, El heraldo de Madrid, El país, La correspondencia de España, El globo, diarys of Spain (1890-1938).
• Nosotros los artistas (2017) ISBN 978-1-9796-6135-5