Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Manuel De Falla

El amor brujo (suite)

 

El Amor brujo (Love, the Magician), which Manuel de Falla wrote in 1914-15, was initially conceived as a gitanería (gypsy piece) for Pastora Imperio, a well known gypsy dancer then at the peak of her popularity. In its first version, for voice and chamber orchestra, the work was barely successful, but the following year de Falla transformed it into a ballet scored for a normal symphony orchestra, with the inclusion of three short songs for mezzo-soprano. El Amor brujo tells the story of Candelas, a gypsy girl, whose love for Carmelo is tormented by the ghost of a man she had loved; the story ends happily. The work is distinctly Andalusian-folkloric in colour (even the songs are in the gypsies’ Andalusian dialect rather than in Castilian Spanish), and it is not hard to detect echoes of popular gypsy song. De Falla’s music contains moments of great beauty and originality in pieces such as the “Ritual Fire Dance” and the ”Dance of Terror”, which long ago became popular and which have been arranged in countless ways.

listen to Real Media recording

1. Danza del terrore
2. Il cerchio magico
3. Mezzanotte
4. Danza rituale del fuoco

Performers

Performance