Juan Hidalgo was the Velázquez of the music for the eccentric, lavish Spanish court of Felipe IV. Hidalgo was the creator of the first Spanish operas, and the leader of a group of musicians impelled—closed borders—to become original by force, without access to more springs from which to drink than those of tradition and folklore. In such a way, Spanish music affirmed and developed its native features – almost exclusive instruments such as the guitar and the harp, singular harmonies, crossrhythms rarely encountered elsewhere, its own individual musical forms such as the villancico and the romance, of popular inspiration such as the jácara and the seguidilla, and dances from beyond the seas which were then copied across most of Europe such as the folías, the chacona, the zarabanda…