Vicenç Cuyàs

Who was Vicenç Cuyàs?

Vicenç Cuyàs i Borés was a Catalan opera composer known for the first Catalan romantic opera La fattucchiera.

Vicenç Cuyàs i Borés was born to a Catalan family in Palma de Mallorca where his family had fled during the Peninsular War. Shortly thereafter, the family returned to Barcelona where Cuyàs began studies in medicine, which he soon abandoned. At the age of 17 he began to study music with Ramón Vilanova, one of Barcelona's most prestigious teachers during the early nineteenth century, who in turn had trained in Milan with abbé Isidore Piantanida. Cuyàs' early works consist of operatic music and ramblings that were premiered widely in private salons. But it was at the Teatre de la Santa Creu where almost all of his works were produced. The First Symphony of Cuyàs is dated 1835 thought it is actually an extensive opera overture in a single movement. Of his Second Symphony only a fragment remains. By 1835 several arias and duets had been composed for a drama of Antonio Ribot.