Reveriano Soutullo received his first musical instruction from his father, a local bandmaster, and later from local teachers. He was somewhat a prodigy, directing a choir at the age of 14. In 1900, he entered the Madrid Conservatory, where he won several prizes. After his graduation in 1906, he studied with both Maurice Ravel and Camille Saint-Saëns before returning to Madrid. There, he was encouraged as a zarzuela composer by Ruperto Chapi, and his first, La paloma del barrio, premiered in 1911. In 1919, he had his first collaboration (El Caprico de una Reina) with Juan Vert, with whom he later wrote some of his masterworks, including El ultimo romantico and La leyenda del beso. He was a particularly prolific composer, producing more than 100, as well as an opera, La devocion de la Cruz, and symphonic music. Despite this prodigious output, his early death, as well as Vert's, represented a major loss to the zarzuela field.