Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Â鶹ԼÅÄ National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales
18 Feb 2021, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff
Previous Event
19:30 Thu 18 Feb 2021 Next Event

Â鶹ԼÅÄ NOW 2020-21 Season Digital Concerts: Manuel de Falla

Â鶹ԼÅÄ National Orchestra of Wales
Digital Concerts: Manuel de Falla
19:30 Thu 18 Feb 2021 Â鶹ԼÅÄ Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff
Manuel de Falla's El Retable de Maese Pedro
Manuel de Falla's El Retable de Maese Pedro

Performers

About This Event

Read the original text and English translation here: bit.ly/2OOKslU

This is a delightful curiosity: music for a one-act puppet opera inspired by an eccentric episode from Don Quixote that features marauding Moors, a languishing princess and her lover, and some choice seventeenth century insults.

The instruments take on the role of a pit orchestra, stripped back and with period touches, such as a harpsichord and a harp that imitates a lute. The music sets the scene for the medieval tale of the puppet show, so there are rustic dances on pairs of oboes and fanfares by a trio of brass.

Falla uses these Medieval flavours and then stirs in other ingredients: baroque colours, Andalusian rhythms and warmth, and his own anachronistic blend of early modernism. There is a brightness and charm throughout that matches the tongue-in-cheek, quixotic qualities of the play.

Falla’s wonderful ear for harmony and orchestration shines through it all. A low flute is paired with a solo muted trumpet, timpani with a brittle bassoon, rippling harpsichord with plucked strings. It’s theatrical and fun, every bar telling the story.

Programme Note © Amy Campbell