Pepita Jiménez is a one-act lyric comedy by Isaac Manuel Albéniz, to a libretto by the English author Francis Burdett Money-Coutts. The subject was derived from a Spanish novel by Juan Valera, but transformed into a semi-serious opera about the social tensions, prohibitions, and taboos of eighteenth-century Spain by Money-Coutts and Albéniz. The seemingly light story pits the passionate and love-hungry young widow Pepita against the morals and convictions of a young seminarian studying to be a Catholic priest. She falls in love with him, and does everything she can, including a suicide attempt, to gain his attention and love. Her daring, insistent advances and his narrow clerical outlook are in constant conflict until the final happy (though amoral) ending. The composer and librettist set the stage for this classic tale of love in Spain by opening with the celebrations of the Feast of the Infant Savior, scored for chorus and children's chorus and accompanied by choreographed dance. Albéniz' score is filled with musical ideas that create an Andalusian atmosphere. Without actually imitating the folk music of Spain, he uses Spanish musical elements, such as lively rhythms and melancholic lyricism, to bring the audience to his native land. The Andalusia setting is idealized and imaginary, and seen from the distance of a century. The religiosity which is so important to the story lends gravity to the score and weight to the drama.

The premiere of Pepita Jiménez took place at the Gran Teatro del Liceo of Barcelona on January 5, 1896. Albéniz eventually rewrote the opera, making it into a larger, two-act work. It was again reworked in the twentieth century by a second composer, Pablo Sorozabal, and turned into a three-act tragedy, in which Pepita commits suicide at the end. The premiere of this third version took place at the Teatro de la Zarzuela of Madrid on June 6, 1964, with Pilar Lorengar and Alfredo Kraus in the lead roles.

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