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
