Both his parents were professional singers: basso Andrés López and soprano Dolores Barreta. Rafael (or Rafaelito) started
studying music at seven years old, first with his parents, then from age 13 at the Madrid conservatory – not voice, though, but piano and
violin. At age 16, he was already conductor of an operetta troupe in Murcia. When the company's tenor, Casañas, was indisposed one
evening, López stepped in for him in the zarzuela Gigantes y cabezudos – and was so successful that only four days later,
he sang Alfredo in La traviata, which was a blatant failure, though.
López went back to Madrid to study voice, this time, with José Gabaztoa, and then started his career as a member of the Teatro de
la Zarzuela. When that theater was destroyed by a fire in November 1909, López went to South America, where he toured and sang particularly
in Buenos Aires.
A few years later, he was back to Madrid and joined the troupe of Emilio Duval. Over the years, he sang at many Spanish theaters, but primarily
in Madrid: at the Apolo, the Eslava, the Lirico – and the reconstructed Teatro de la Zarzuela, where the two most important performances of
his career took place: the world premiere of Maruxa by Amadeo Vives on 28 May 1914, and the Spanish premiere of de Falla's La vida
breve on 14 November of the same year.
He retired as a singer in 1923 and returned to conducting; with the troupe of Eugenia Zufoli, he went to Havana and other Latin American cities.
About his death, there is no information.
Attention, he is not to be mixed up with a roughly contemporary (slightly older) namesake who was a baritone, and left more recordings than "our"
Rafael López.
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