Calle de Arregui y Aruej

Behind this double name lies a partnership: Enrique Arregui and Luis Aruej, the impresarios who took over the Teatro Apolo in 1889 and turned it into what was called the cathedral of the light zarzuela. Arregui handled the artistic side; Aruej, the business. Together they signed off almost a quarter-century of playbills. Across its stage on calle de Alcalá passed the zarzuelas hummed all over Madrid. In February 1894 they premiered La verbena de la Paloma, with music by Tomás Bretón, which still captures the old Madrid of shawls and barrel organs. The partnership broke up with Arregui’s death in 1913. The street already appears on the 1900 map of Madrid, in the Pacífico neighbourhood. It led to the washing house by the Vallecas Bridge, which a windstorm brought down in 1905.