Sergio Ortega

Sergio Ortega Alvarado (February 2, 1938 – September 16, 2003) was a Chilean composer, pianist, poet, teacher and politician. He is recognized for having composed important Chilean left-wing politics anthems, among them are "Venceremos" and "El pueblo unido jamás será vencido",

Biography Sergio Ortega Alvarado was born in Antofagasta, Chile on February 2, 1938. Later he composed the soundtrack of El Chacal de Nahueltoro in 1969 by filmmaker Miguel Littin. In 2001, he also composed a song for the film Taxi para tres.

Pablo Neruda entrusted him with musicalizing the assembly of his translation of Romeo and Juliet. Later, he would ask her to compose the soundtrack for his only play, Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murieta, premiered in 1967 at the Antonio Varas Theater, under the direction of Pedro Orthous. The work, which made a successful tour of Europe, tells the story of Joaquín Murieta, a Chilean gold prospector who comes to California in search of fortune. The story had already appeared in Neruda's books as the fourth episode of La barcarola. However, Neruda writes the play, with characters, dialogues, script, etc. On December 14, 1998, the two-act opera Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murieta, composed by him and with a libretto based on the homonymous work by Neruda, premiered at the Municipal Theatre of Santiago. Ortega was a member of the Communist Party of Chile. He together with the singer-songwriter Victor Jara and the lyricist Claudio Iturra, he composed "Venceremos" the electoral theme of the socialist president Salvador Allende and a world anthem of leftist movements. He also worked on a musical version of Neruda's Canto General with Gustavo Becerra and the group Aparcoa, which was staged in 1970. After the coup, he took refuge in the embassy of Panama. He then moved to France, where he would continue his musical career.

In 1978, he composed and premiered at an Austrian festival, Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, 1810. Poema sonoro para el padre de mi patria. For the celebration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution, Ortega worked on a praised operatic trilogy. Ortega worked with his eldest son, Chañaral Ortega-Miranda (later member of the French faction of Quilapayún), on an operatic version of Pedro Páramo, the novel by Mexican writer Juan Rulfo.

In 1970, he began to direct the university's TV station, Channel 9, which he continued until 1973. In 1977 Ortega visited the USSR, participated in the festival "Red Carnation". He was given permission to return to Chile in 1983, and did so several times. During his exile, Ortega directed L'Ecole Nationale de Musique, in Pantin, France.

During the 30th anniversary of the Military Coup, he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. In September 2003, Sergio Ortega was already in a coma at the Saint Louis hospital in Paris. He died on September 15, at the age of 65, surrounded by his wife and their three sons. On the 27th of the same month, his remains would be buried in the General Cemetery. The Workers' United Center, the Antonio Varas Theater and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Chile made official tributes. In the Municipal Theatre, the choir led by Max Valdés, interpreted the final parts of Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murieta.

Discography

La dama del canasto (1965) La fragua (1973)