Composer. A Spanish-born classicist, active in Europe. In his time he was highly esteemed for his comic operas and ballet music. His greatest success was the opera "Una cosa rara" (1786), with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Mozart thought well enough of the piece to quote one of its melodies in the last act of "Don Giovanni" (1787). The son of a church singer, Martín y Soler was born in Valencia and studied music in Bologna under Giovanni Battista Martini. By 1776 he was in Madrid, where his first opera, "Il tutore burlato", was premiered. Although he was admired by the future King of Spain, Charles VI, he found the theatres and courts of Italy more rewarding. His peak years (1785 to 1788) were spent in Vienna, enjoying the patronage of Emperor Joseph II and friendships with Haydn, Mozart, and Salieri. In 1788 Russia's Catherine the Great offered him the post of court composer, and apart from a period in London in the mid-1790s, he lived in St. Petersburg until his death. Martín y Soler wrote about 30 operas and 20 ballets. He made a conscious effort to incorporate folk elements into his elegant, Italianate style, and "Una cosa rara" is credited with introducing the waltz, then a simple peasant dance, to Vienna. In St. Petersburg he composed Russian-language operas along with Italian ones and Catherine II is said to have co-written the libretto for "The Unfortunate Hero Kosmetovich" (1789). His other opuses include the operas "Ifigenia" (1779), "Il burbero di buon cuore" (1786), "L'arbore di Diana" (1787), "Melomania" (1790), and "La capricciosa corretta" (1795), and the ballets "Il barbiere di Siviglia" (1781), "Amour et Psyche" (1791), and "Tancrede" (1799).