24 Facts About Pepita Embil

Josefa Embil Echaniz better known as Pepita Embil was a Spanish Basque soprano who starred in zarzuela and operetta productions throughout Spain and Latin America.

Pepita Embil collaborated with some of the most prominent Spanish composers of the 1940s, including Federico Moreno Torroba, Jacinto Guerrero, and Pablo Sorozabal.

Josefa "Pepita" Embil was born on February 28,1918, in Getaria in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country of Spain.

Pepita Embil's father, Arturo Embil y Lazcano, was a church organist and a lover of zarzuelas.

Pepita Embil liked to play piano reductions of operatic music for enjoyment.

Pepita Embil died at age 45 in January 1930, when his daughter Pepita was 11 years old.

Pepita Embil began her singing career as part of the Euzko-Abesbatza, a Basque choir directed by Olaizola.

Pepita Embil joined the newly formed choir and toured extensively with the group outside of Spain, often singing as a choral soloist, until it disbanded two years later.

Pepita Embil joined a touring company led by composer Federico Moreno Torroba.

Pepita Embil soon appeared in his zarzuela Sor Navarra in Pamplona with baritone Placido Domingo Ferrer, whom she had recently met for the first time at Madrid's Cafe de Castilla, a gathering place for the city's artists and musicians.

Pepita Embil was asked to join the company of the Teatro Calderon in Madrid periodically from 1940 to 1945.

Pepita Embil soon became one of the favorite singers of several leading Spanish composers, including Moreno Torroba, Pablo Sorozabal, and Jacinto Guerrero.

Pepita Embil had a significant success in Sorozabal's Black el payaso.

Pepita Embil sang the leading role, Lola la de Jerez, in the new zarzuela, which was an immediate hit.

Pepita Embil starred in some of the last great zarzuelas to be written.

In September 1947, Pepita Embil starred in the leading role of El orgullo de Jalisco to "warm and grateful" applause at its world premiere in Mexico City.

Pepita Embil gave recitations and concerts, sometimes accompanied by her son, Placido, on the piano.

Pepita Embil sang the mezzo-soprano role of Aurora la Beltrana.

Pepita Embil died on August 28,1994, in Mexico City from a liver disease caused by a blood transfusion from twenty years earlier.

Pepita Embil is buried next to her husband at the Panteon Espanol de Mexico.

Pepita Embil remains one of the best remembered zarzuela stars in the Americas.

Pepita Embil wrote that she had once received an offer from the Liceu for a contract to sing operatic roles there, but declined because she was already a zarzuela star at the time.

Pepita Embil toured other key locations from her early years as well.

Pepita Embil began her recording career as a Basque choral singer in the late 1930s, when she was around twenty years old.