Opera Scotland

Federico Moreno Torroba Suggest updates

Born Madrid, 3 March 1891.

Died Madrid, 12 September 1982.

Spanish composer and manager.

Federico Moreno Torroba is known internationally as a composer of guitar music. However, within the Spanish-speaking world his vast output of some fifty stage works is important. He was also a successful impresario, managing companies that toured in Spain, the USA and Latin America through several decades.

His first zarzuela opened in 1912, and the last, El Poeta, with a leading role for Plácido Domingo, as late as 1980. The peak of his operetta output is widely thought to be Luisa Fernanda (1932), followed by La chulapona (1934). This last is the only work so far performed in Britain,with a successful new staging from Madrid appearing at the 1989 Edinburgh Festival.