[4] When he returned he entered the Royal Palace of Madrid on November 28, 1863, as a gentleman of the then Prince of Asturias and future King Alfonso XII of Spain, a position he held until the Revolution in 1868 that overthrew Isabel II.

[8] In late 1883, a number of musicians, led by Count Morphy, sharing the same concerns regarding the regeneration of Spanish art, gathered together in a society in Madrid to found the Philharmonic Institute with the aim of offering musical training at the same level as other European centres.

In particular, the bel canto school run by Napoleón Verger helped to improve the standard of singing in Spain and to endow opera stages with renowned figures, thus paving the way for the establishment of Spanish lyric drama.

[9] From 1886 to 1895, the Count of Morphy assumed a leading role as president of the Fine Arts section, he engaged with the activities of the society by giving lectures and by introducing the Ateneo to his own aesthetic principles, including his regenerationist agenda and his musical nationalism.

The Ateneo experienced a period of splendor with a new impulse in vocal, instrumental and chamber music, and a renewed repertoire with contemporary works by Spanish and Central European composers.