I have already spoken of _La Dolores_. It is one of a long series of operas and zarzuelas written by Tomás Bretón y Hernandez (born at Salamanca, December 29, 1850). First produced at Madrid, in 1895, it has been sung with success in such distant capitals as Buenos Ayres and Prague. I have been assured by a Spanish woman of impeccable taste that _La Dolores_ is charming, delightful in its fluent melody and its striking rhythms, thoroughly Spanish in style, but certain to find favour in America, if it were produced here. Our own Eleanora de Cisneros at a Press Club Benefit in Barcelona appeared in Bretón's zarzuela _La Verbena de la Paloma_. Another of Bretón's famous zarzuelas is _Los Amantes de Teruel_ (Madrid, 1889). His works for the theatre further include _Tabaré_, for which he wrote both words and music (Madrid, 1913); _Don Gil_ (Barcelona, 1914); _Garín_ (Barcelona, 1891); _Raquel_ (Madrid, 1900); _Guzmán el Bueno_ (Madrid, 1876); _El Certamen de Cremona_ (Madrid, 1906); _El Campanero de Begoña_ (Madrid, 1878); _El Barberillo en Orán_; _Corona contra Corona_ (Madrid, 1879); _Los Amores de un Príncipe_ (Madrid, 1881); _El Clavel Rojo_ (1899); _Covadonga_ (1901); and _El Domingo de Ramos_, words by Echegaray (Madrid, 1894). His works for orchestra include: _En la Alhambra_, _Los Galeotes_, and _Escenas Andaluzas_, a suite. He has written three string quartets, a piano trio, a piano quintet, and an oratorio in two parts, _El Apocalipsis_. [Illustration: TOMÁS BRETÓN] Bretón is largely self-taught, and there is a legend that he devoured by himself Eslava's "School of Composition." He further wrote the music and conducted for a circus for a period of years. In the late seventies he conducted an orchestra, founding a new society, the Unión Artística Musical, which is said to have been the beginning of the modern movement in Spain. It may throw some light on Spanish musical taste at this period to mention the fact that the performance of Saint-Saëns's _Danse macabre_ almost created a riot. Later Bretón travelled. He appeared as conductor in London, Prague, and Buenos Ayres, among other cities outside of Spain, and when Dr. Karl Muck left Prague for Berlin, he was invited to succeed him in the Bohemian capital. In the contest held by the periodical "Blanco y Negro" in 1913 to decide who was the most popular writer, poet, painter, musician, sculptor, and toreador in Spain, Bretón as musician got the most votes.... He is at present the head of the Royal Conservatory in Madrid.