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.