Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga (1806-1826) was born into a prosperous merchant family in the northern coastal town of Bilbao, Spain, on the fiftieth anniversary of Mozart’s birth (January 27) His music-loving parents gave him the Spanish versions of Mozart’s first two baptismal names: Johannes Chrysostomus. As a child, he was an intuitive musician who began composing at the age of nine and was performing as second violinist with a professional quartet by the following year.

In September 1821, Arriaga’s parents sent him to Paris where was introduced to Cherubini, at that time one of the inspectors of the Paris Conservatoire. He was admitted to study counterpoint and fugue under Fétis and violin with Pierre Baillot. He finished the entire course of study in just two years, and in 1824 was appointed teacher of harmony and counterpoint at the Conservatoire and issued the only music published during his lifetime as well, a set of three string quartets. Arriaga died prematurely from exhaustion and a pulmonary infection in 1826, 10 days before his 20th birthday.

The opera Los esclavos felices (The Happy Slaves) tells of a Spanish nobleman and his loyal wife who are faced with humiliation and death by their Moorish captors before being saved by their own valor and the clemency of the King of Algiers. The music is reminiscent of the vivacity of Rossini and the suavity of Mozart.