223
See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■
Finlandia 220–221 ■ Iberia 222 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287T
he ballet El sombrero
de tres picos (The Three-
Cornered Hat), with music
by the composer Manuel de Falla,
was first performed by Sergei
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in
London’s Alhambra Theatre. Based
on a novella by Pedro Antonio de
Alarcón, it is a comedy about the
magistrate of a small Andalusian
town, who falls in love with the
wife of the local miller. The ballet
was choreographed by the Russian
Léonide Massine, who also danced
the part of the miller, with sets and
costumes by Pablo Picasso.
Falla grew up in the port city
of Cádiz in Spain’s far south but
studied at the Madrid Conservatory
where, like many composers of his
generation, he was influenced by
Felipe Pedrell’s explorations of the
country’s traditional music. Falla
made his name with an opera, La
vida breve (“Life is short”), inspired
by the cante jondo (“deep song”) of
his native Andalusia. In 1917, Falla
and the impresarios María and
Gregorio Martínez Sierra created an
early, shorter version of El sombrerode tres picos. Its success in Madrid
brought it to the attention of Sergei
Diaghilev, who then commissioned
de Falla to compose the music
for an expanded version with full
orchestra. Like La vida breve, it
uses Andalusian melodies and
also contains cante jondo songs. ■A WONDERFUL MAZE
OF RHYTHMICAL
DEXTERITIES
EL SOMBRERO DE TRES PICOS (1919)
MANUEL DE FALLAIN CONTEXT
FOCUS
20th-century Spanish
musicBEFORE
1897 Ruperto Chapí’s La
revoltosa (The Troublemaker)
is one of the most popular
zarzuelas of the decades
before World War I.1911 In Barcelona, Enrique
Granados premieres the first
part of his piano suite
Goyescas, inspired by the
paintings of Francisco Goya.AFTER
1920 Igor Stravinsky’s ballet
Pulcinella is premiered in Paris
by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes,
choreographed by Massine,
with sets by Picasso.1961 Catalan musician
Eduard Toldrà conducts a
concert version of de Falla’s
unfinished work Atlántida at
the Liceu in Barcelona.Manuel de Falla composes at the
piano in this 1925 portrait by Daniel
Vázquez Díaz, who painted the most
famous and influential Spanish
figures of his time.NATIONALISM 1830–1920
US_222-223_Albeniz_deFalla.indd 223 26/03/18 1:01 PM