Pepita Embil

Josefa "Pepita" Embil Echániz (Basque: Josefa Enbil Etxaniz; February 28, 1918—August 28, 1994) was a Spanish Basque soprano who starred in zarzuela and operetta productions throughout Spain and Latin America. Known as the "Queen of Zarzuela," she is especially remembered for her son, the internationally famous operatic tenor Plácido Domingo, whose early career she helped to nurture. Embil began her professional career singing as a soloist in choirs, including the Basque national choir, Eresoinka, which based itself in France during the Spanish Civil War. While still in her twenties, she appeared in the world premieres of several new zarzuelas. She collaborated with some of the most prominent Spanish composers of the 1940s, including Federico Moreno Torroba, Jacinto Guerrero, and Pablo Sorozábal. In late 1948, she moved to Mexico with her baritone husband, Plácido Domingo Ferrer. In Mexico they ran a successful zarzuela company of their own, which toured throughout the Americas. Over the course of her career, Embil made several recordings, primarily of zarzuela music.

Josefa "Pepita" Embil was born on February 28, 1918 in Getaria in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country of Spain. Her father, Arturo Embil y Lazcano, was a church organist and a lover of zarzuelas. He also liked to play piano reductions of operatic music for enjoyment. He and his wife, Germana Echániz Ostolaza, had five children: Francisco, Sebastián, Josefa (Pepita), Agustina, and Angel María. He died at age 45 in January 1930, when his daughter Pepita was 11 years old. La Constancia, a traditionalist Catholic Integrist party newspaper, announced his death and mentioned the "irreparable loss" his family and "political brothers" experienced. With the encouragement of her father, Pepita started singing lessons as a child and eventually attended the conservatory in San Sebastián, the capital of Gipuzkoa, where she studied with bass Gabriel Olaizola ().

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