Cenobio Paniagua y Vasques

Cenobio Paniagua y Vásquez was a Mexican composer (born in Tlalpujahua, Michoacán, 1821; died in Córdoba, Veracruz, 1882). His opera Catalina de Guisa was the first by a Mexican composer to be staged in his country, although it was sung in Italian.

He trained as a violinist in the orchestra of the cathedral of Morelia, under his uncle's direction. When his uncle moved to Mexico City, Paniagua went with him and joined the orchestra of the metropolitan cathedral. He taught himself composition, working from an Italian translation of Reicha's Cours de composition musicale. Thanks to his contacts with Bottesini and other foreign musicians, he premiered Catalina de Guisa in 1859; it had been composed in 1845 to a libretto by Felice Romani. That same year he presented the farce Una riña de aguadores. His second opera, Pietro d'Abano, with a libretto by Antonio Boni, premiered in 1863 to a less enthusiastic reception. He then founded a company through which he hoped to promote his works and his daughter's career as a singer. The venture failed and seriously damaged his career, and in 1868 he moved to Córdoba.

His later works, mostly religious, did little to enhance his reputation: the cantata Siete palabras (1869), the oratorio Tobías (1870), a requiem (1882) and some seventy masses. His legacy rests chiefly on his role as the founder of an operatic school in Mexico, and his most distinguished pupil was Melesio Morales.