Amadeo Vives (November 18, 1871 ? December 1, 1932) was a Spanish musical composer, creator of over a hundred stage works. He is also known by the Catalan form of his name, Amadeu Vives. He is best known for Doña Francisquita, which Christopher Webber praising its "easy lyricism, fluent orchestration and colourful evocation of 19th Century Madrid?not to mention its memorable vocal and choral writing" characterizes as "without doubt the best known and loved of all his works, one of the few zarzuelas which has 'travelled' abroad" .[LINK: http://www.zarzuela.net/com/vives.htm] Amadeo Vives on zarzuela.net, accessed 19 December 2006. A Catalan, Vives was born in Collbató, near Montserrat. He studied in Barcelona under José Ribera, and in 1891 helped found the influential Orféo Catalá choral society, a key element in the Catalan musical renaissance. He then became an early p