Pepita Jiménez

Pepita Jiménez is a lyric comedy or comic opera with music written by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. The original opera was written in one act and used an English libretto by Albéniz's patron and collaborator, the Englishman Francis Money-Coutts, which is based on the novel of the same name by Juan Valera. The opera was later adapted several times, first by the composer and later by others, into numerous languages and different constructs, including both a two-act version and a three-act version.

The first of the composer's three versions of Pepita Jiménez was written in Paris during 1895 and performed as a one-act opera using an Italian translation of the original English libretto by Angelo Bignotti. It premiered on January 5, 1896, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona with Emma Zilli portraying the title role. Originally the first Pepita was to have been the Romanian soprano Hariclea Darclée, but probably because of production delays the role went to Zilli. The work was not well received in its first form and Albéniz never published this version, deciding instead to immediately revise the score.

During 1896 an expanded, two-act version was finished and, in preparation for a production at the Deutsches Landestheater in Prague, published by Breitkopf & Härtel in a German translation by Oskar Berggruen. This version, performed on 22 June 1897 under Franz Schalk, was somewhat more successful, but not enough to be revived in the following seasons.

Continuing to live in Paris, Albéniz, who was primarily a pianist, was more and more influenced by French composers, in particular Paul Dukas, who tutored him in orchestration. Thus, Albéniz again took up the opera, adding additional instruments and enriching its orchestration. This version was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1904. It was first performed in a French translation by Joseph de Marliave at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels on January 3, 1905, under conductor Sylvain Dupuis. Albéniz died in 1909 at the age of 48 from kidney failure without further revising the opera.

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