Aniceto Ortega del Villar

Aniceto de los Dolores Luis Gonzaga Ortega Del Villar (Tulancingo, Hidalgo, 1825 - 1875) was a Mexican physician, composer, and pianist. Although he had a distinguished career as a physician and surgeon, he is also remembered today for his 1871 opera Guatemotzin, one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native theme.

Biography

Aniceto Ortega del Villar studied at the School of Medicine in Mexico, which he entered on January 12, 1841, obtaining his medical degree on December 30, 1845. He studied obstetrics in France, beginning in 1849. A great researcher in embryology, he was the first to practice preventive medicine in Mexico upon his return from the European Continent in 1851.

On November 1, 1865, he was appointed by the Emperor Maximilian as a member of the Superior Health Council, created by the Emperor, and on February 1, 1868, he was appointed by Benito Juárez, who did not like him, but who recognized his professional skills, Professor at the School of Obstetrics. On March 8, 1870, he received the appointment of Director of the Maternity Hospital of Mexico. (Teodomiro MANZANO, "Distinguished Hidalguenses", 1940)

In addition to being a doctor, he was a noted musician. He founded the Mexican Philharmonic Society in the year 1866, now converted into the National Conservatory of Music. A great musical critic, as a composer he wrote waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, as well as the well-known march Zaragoza and one of the first Mexican operas with a national sense called Guatemotzin, based on a Historical novel by the writer Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda based on a passage from the history of the conquest of Mexico.

Works

Piano

• Invocation to Beethoven
• Choice, love and innocence
• Romance without words
• The singing of the huilota
• I remember friendship (Dedicated to the virtuous Mexican pianist and composer, Tomás León)

Valses

• Enriqueta
• Brilliant

Marches

• Zaragoza
• Potosine
• Republic

Opera

• Guatimotzin