Manuel

Manuel Penella Moreno

Valencia , 31 July 1880
Cuernavaca (Mèxic) , 24 January 1939

Composer

He studied with his father Manuel Penella i Raga, Salvador Giner and Andrés Goñi. Despite showing talent for the violin from an early age, he had to abandon the instrument due to an accident in his left hand. In 1894 he was organist of the parish of Sant Nicolau in Valencia, the city where he premiered the zarzuela La fiesta del pueblo.

In 1898 he began a journey through Latin America as musical director of multiple lyric companies, and also conducted a military band in Ecuador. In 1907 he settled in Madrid, where he premiered nine stage music works until 1914. In Buenos Aires he performed Las musas latinas (1913) with his own company.

In 1917 he premiered El gato montés at the Teatre Principal in Valencia, an opera that arrived to New York years later casting Concha Piquer. In 1932 he presented the opera Don Gil de Alcalà at Teatre Novedades (Barcelona), with which he paid homage to Mexico where he would move once the Spanish Civil War began.

He wrote over 80 stage music works, as well as very popular songs such as En tierra extraña and La maredeue