FULL The Three-Cornered Hat or El sombrero de tres picos London (de Falla) 2013 Clara Mouriz
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: The Three-Cornered Hat or El sombrero de tres picos
- Composer: Falla Manuel de
- Libretto: derived from the novella of the same name by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón.
- Venue & Opera Company: Royal Albert Hall, London, UK
- Recorded: July 25, 2013
- Type: Concert Semi-staged
- Singers: Clara Mouriz
- Conductor: Juanjo Mena
- Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic
- Ballet: Antonio Márquez Company
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: BBC
- Date Published: 2013
- Format: Broadcast
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
The Three-Cornered Hat (Spanish: El sombrero de tres picos or Le tricorne) is a ballet choreographed by Léonide Massine to music by Manuel de Falla. It was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev and premiered in 1919. It is not only a ballet with Spanish setting but one that also employs the techniques of Spanish dance (adapted and somewhat simplified) instead of classical ballet.
Synopsis
Act I
After a short fanfare, the curtain rises revealing a mill in Andalusia. The miller is trying to teach a pet blackbird to tell the time. He tells the bird to chirp twice, but instead it chirps three times. Annoyed, the miller scolds the bird and tells it to try again. The bird now chirps four times. The miller gets angry at the bird again and his wife offers it a grape. The bird takes the grape and chirps twice. The miller and his wife laugh over this and continue their work.
Soon the magistrate, his wife, and their bodyguard pass by, taking their daily walk. The procession goes by and the couple returns to their work. The dandified, but lecherous, magistrate is heard coming back. The miller tells his wife that he will hide and that they will play a trick on the magistrate. The miller hides and the magistrate sees the miller’s wife dancing. After her dance, she offers him some grapes. When the magistrate gets the grapes, the miller’s wife runs away with the magistrate following her. Finally, he catches her, and the miller jumps out of a bush with a stick. The miller chases the magistrate away and the miller and his wife continue working.
Act II
That night, guests are at the miller’s house. The miller dances to entertain them. His dance is interrupted by the magistrate’s bodyguard, who has come to arrest him on trumped-up charges. After the miller is taken away, the guests leave one-by-one. The miller’s wife goes to sleep and soon the magistrate comes to the mill. On his way to the door, the magistrate trips and falls in the river. The miller’s wife wakes up and runs away.
The magistrate undresses, hangs his clothes on a tree, and goes to sleep in the miller’s bed. The miller has escaped from prison and sees the magistrate in his bed. The miller thinks that the magistrate is sleeping with his wife and plans to switch clothes with the magistrate and avenge himself by seducing the magistrate’s wife. The miller leaves, dressed as the magistrate, and the magistrate soon wakes up. He goes outside and sees that his clothes are gone, so he dresses in the miller’s clothes.
The bodyguard comes and sees the magistrate dressed as the miller and goes to arrest him. The miller’s wife sees the bodyguard fighting with what looks like her husband and joins in the fight. The miller comes back and sees his wife in the fight and joins it to protect her. The magistrate explains the entire story and the ballet ends with the miller’s guests tossing the magistrate up and down in a blanket.
Quoted from Wikipedia