Antonio Videgain

Antonio Videgain García (March 10, 1869 in Jerez Cadiz – February 9, 1944 in Argentina) was a Spanish conductor and composer, who dedicated his career to writing zarzuelas, such as A vuela Pluma and El vals coqueto.

For the baritone and actor, see Antonio Videgain Reparaz.
Antonio Videgain
Born
Antonio Videgain García

(1869-03-10)March 10, 1869
Jerez, Andalucia, Spain.
DiedFebruary 9, 1944(1944-02-09) (aged 74)
América
Occupationmusician, composer, director, producer, businessman
Years active1884–1944
Spouse(s)Virgilia Reparaz (1867–1938)
ChildrenAntonio Videgain Reparaz

Biography

Although the details of his early years are not entirely certain, Videgain was born in Jerez and spent his childhood and adolescence in Madrid. He began music lessons with his father and continued his education with Ruperto Chapí and Tomás Bretón. By the age of 12, he was already playing among the first violins of the Teatro Principal orchestra in Cádiz. Thirteen years later, he became the director of an operette (musical) and zarzuela company, making his debut in Gibraltar with a production of Jerónimo Giménez.

A scholarship permitted Videgain to enrol at the Conservatoire, where he received the first prize for harmony and counterpoint. After graduation, he traveled to Argentina and then returned to Spain, settling in Madrid. In 1892 he was born Antonio Videgain Reparaz his son, was a famous singer of zarzuela in Argentina, Uruguay, Panama and Chile and sang in EEUU (Puerto Rico) in the 1930s. In 1899, he was named director of Teatro Romea de Murcia, and shortly afterwards, of the Teatro de la Zarzuela.

Ruperto Chapí commissioned him to write the openings to his zarzuelas but their lost. As a conductor of the Sociedad de Conciertos de Cadiz, Videgain helped cultivate the tastes of audiences in Cadiz for symphonic music. According to "those who have seem him conduct and have transmitted to us the memory of his performances of great strength and great enthusiasm. he obtained with imperceptible gestures what he wanted from the orchestra." Videgain also collaborated with the leading authors of sainetes (a comic genre found in Spanish theatre), including Salvador Videgain Gómez, Antonio Reparaz, the Quintero brothers, Joaquín Arqués, and Rafael Calleja, also writers to obtain the libretti for his zarzuelas. He co-wrote the music of a number of his works with others conductor, who hailed him the "musician of impossible" because of his sense of rhythm and easy melodies.

His careful musical education in his learning leads him to learn from the best teachers, Reparaz, Chapí, Bretón, Chueca... so he had the ease of composing numbers with great ease, although he hardly exploited this facet for his not too numerous works if they were opportune to release on designated dates thus saving companies from not having fresh works to show to the public and so we could see it, because almost all of their works were composed for that purpose.

Unlike his parents who had the family opposition to start his career because they seemed social madness at that time, he counted from the first moment of the support and prestige of his parents, supporting his decision to direct his future in music, so different was that the first company that had its own was with capital directly contributed by them.

Works

In 1895, wrote A vuela Pluma, based on a text by E. de María journalist-director of The Fogón Buenos Aires, and in 1898 El vals coqueto in San Sebastián. Following the success of this piece, he set to music another sainete with the same characters, which became one of his most famous works: Buscando compañia in 1907, Películas nacionales or La gran apoteosis in 1917. This work are around the world and visit ciys of Spain as Alicante, Oviedo, Toledo, Murcia, Salamanca, Badajoz, Avila, Cádiz and Málaga... But he was lost his wife Virgilia Reparaz, daughter great master of opera, Antonio Reparaz. He travel Argentina in the 1890s with zarzuelas, he was in Argentina where he winner famous and arrive again Spain until 1926, again arrive América where he died in the 1940s. The most famous titles he conducted are Molinos de Viento, La alegría del batallón, La mazorca roja,La borracha, La reja de la Dolores, La tempranica, Doloretes, La revoltosa, El amigo melquiades, El pollo tejada, El famoso Colirón, El cabo Pinocho, Las mujeres, El mundo comedia es o el baile de Luis Alonso, De vuelta del vivero and other centurys more...

The Finish

The famous parents Antonia García de Videgain and Salvador Videgain Gómez and his brother Salvador Videgain are more important us him but his music was his moment. Beyond dramatic works for the stage, Videgain also wrote one cadenzas to Beethoven's Violin Concerto.

Towards the end of his life, He lived in a precarious economic situation due to the Second World War, but he could alleviate it by obtaining the chair of chapel musician. Antonio did not die in poverty as he received part of the inheritance from his parents' farm in the best neighborhood of Madrid. He dead it is believed on February 9, 1944, in Uruguay or Chile.

Notes and references
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