Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Albéniz, Isaac Manuel Francisco
(1860-1909)
Spanish composer
When little more than a boy, Albéniz left
home to pursue a passion for playing the
piano and supported himself during his
wanderings by his facility with that instru-
ment. When he was in his 20s he returned
to a more orderly and disciplined life and
studied with Franz Liszt and the advocate of
a distinctively Spanish school of music,
Felipe Pedrell (who was also the teacher of
E
NRIQUE
G
RANADOS
and M
ANUEL
DE
F
ALLA
).
In Paris Albéniz met with leading French
composers of the day and developed his
own style, incorporating contemporary pia-
nistic approaches with traditional Spanish
folkloric themes. He was prolific in his com-
positions, producing the suites for piano
Iberia
and
Catalonia,
the “Tango in D Major,”
and a series of
Cantos de España.
On a larger
scale his work ranged from the comic opera
The Magic Opal
to the grand opera
Pepita
Jiménez,
based on the celebrated novel by
J
UAN
V
ALERA
. The career of Albéniz was cut
short by illness, and he produced little in
the years up to his death.
adviser both in France and Spain, he con-
tinued to represent his own sovereign,
becoming the latter's personal agent in
M
ADRID
after the close of the war. He played
a major role in arranging the marriage of
the duke of Parma's daughter, Isabella
Farnese, to the widowed P
HILIP
V.
Between 1716 and 1719 Alberoni was
prime minister of Spain in everything but
name, serving both the interests of his
adopted country and the political ambitions
of the queen consort. His most important
achievements in domestic policy were the
promotion of trade, the enhancement of
manufacturing by encouraging the immi-
gration of foreign craftsmen, and the aboli-
tion of the archaic system of royal councils.
Although in these matters he essentially
followed the line advocated by Philip's
French advisers during the earlier part of
his reign, he was drawn into an increas-
ingly anti-French program by pressure from
the queen. While Alberoni sought only to
reestablish the diminished prestige of Spain
and preferred to concentrate on it strength-
ening the American empire, the king's new
wife demanded an aggressive challenge to
Austria's new predominance in Italy. This
would, in later years, lead to the queen's
obsession with securing Italian thrones for
her sons, particularly the future C
HARLES
III. Despite Alberoni's arguments that such
actions were premature, he was compelled
to launch invasions of Sardinia and Sicily,
territories that had been lost by Spain in the
succession war. This merely provoked a
massive counterattack from a coalition of
France, Austria, Britain, and the Dutch
Republic. By 1719 Spain had been defeated
on land and sea, and Alberoni, blamed for
the disaster, was forced to withdraw to
Rome. Thanks to his status as a cardinal,
Alberoni, Giulio
(1664-1752)
Spanish statesman
Born to a humble family in the Italian
duchy of Parma, Alberoni was recognized
by the Jesuits for his natural abilities, edu-
cated in their schools, and ordained to the
priesthood, subsequently becoming a canon
of the cathedral of Parma. Shifting from an
ecclesiastical to a diplomatic career, he rep-
resented the duchy at the headquarters of
the duke of Vendôme, the principal French
commander during the W
AR
OF
THE
S
PANISH
S
UCCESSION
. Traveling with Vendôme as
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