Calle de Arrieta

Ópera·Palacio

The street bears the name of Juan Pascual Antonio Arrieta y Corera (Puente la Reina, 1821 – Madrid, 1894), a Navarrese composer known as Emilio Arrieta, director of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, whose masterpiece, the zarzuela Marina (1855), remains in the Spanish lyric repertoire. The change from calle de la Biblioteca came in the early 20th century, after the National Library left number 12 for the Paseo de Recoletos in 1892.

Between the Plaza de la Encarnación and the Plaza de Isabel II, in the Palacio quarter, runs a street that for centuries had no outline at all: on Texeira’s 1656 map it was a space without edges. Its course was fixed in the mid-19th century, when the Teatro Real and the Plaza de Oriente brought order to the area. It was earlier known as calle de la Biblioteca, after number 12, a house that in 1826 took in the Royal Library, later the National Library, until in 1892 it left for the Paseo de Recoletos. With the books gone, the council dedicated the street to Emilio Arrieta. Arrieta was born in Puente la Reina in 1821 and trained at the Milan Conservatory. Back in Madrid he became singing teacher to Isabel II and directed the Madrid Conservatory until his death, teaching Bretón and Chapí. His most lasting work was Marina, a zarzuela of 1855 that he himself turned into an opera in 1871. On the site of number 12, once the Library was pulled down, rose the Royal National Academy of Medicine, opened in 1914.

Its names

  • Calle sin nombre definidoAnterior a mid 19th century
  • Calle de la Bibliotecac. 1826 – comienzos del 20th century
  • Calle de ArrietaComienzos del 20th century – actualidad
Sources (8)

Crossings