Ruperto Chapí y Lorente (27 March 1851 – 25 March 1909) was a Spanish composer, and co-founder of the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers.

Biography

Chapí was born at

Villena Villena () is a city in Spain, in the Valencian Community. It is located at the northwest part of Alicante, and borders to the west with Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia, to the north with the province of Valencia and to the east and south with th ...

, the son of a

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the Carche, El Carche comarca in Región de Murcia, Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance lan ...

barber. He trained in his home town and in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

. He wrote many symphonic, band, choral and chamber works, as well as ''

zarzuela () is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of ...

s'' and

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libre ...

s, becoming, alongside Tomás Bretón, a fellow pupil of Emilio Arrieta at the Madrid Conservatory. He was one of the most popular and important composers of his time. He wrote zarzuelas in all shapes and sizes, including the three-act ''zarzuela grande'' and the one-act '' género chico'' forms. His most celebrated work is ''

La revoltosa (''The Troublemaker'') is a Spanish zarzuela with a libretto by José López Silva and Carlos Fernández Shaw and music by Ruperto Chapí. It premiered on 25 November 1897 at the Apollo Theatre in Madrid.Cincotta p.63 Adaptations It has been m ...

'', written in the latter style. Many of the preludes to his ''zarzuela''s (including those to ''El tambor de granaderos'' and ''La patria chi