Manuel Penella

Manuel Penella Moreno (July 31, 1880, in Valencia – January 24, 1939, in Cuernavaca) was a Spanish composer. His father was the composer Manuel Penella Raga. His daughter Magdalena Penella Silva married the politician Ramón Ruiz Alonso; through her, he was the grandfather of actresses Emma Penella, Elisa Montés and Terele Pávez.

Although his most popular work at home and abroad is the oft-revived opera española El gato montés (a special favourite of Plácido Domingo, who has revived it several times and recorded it for Deutsche Grammophon), several of his other works still enjoy popularity in Spain and the Spanish-speaking world, notably the chamber opera Don Gil de Alcalá (scored in Mexican style for strings and harp), some of his revues and the ambitious, late zarzuela La malquerida (1935), based on the masterpiece by Jacinto Benavente.