El amor brujo

1914–⁠15 · Gitanería with dances, songs and spoken text; later a ballet and a concert suite

Built around Pastora Imperio, who danced Candelas at the Teatro Lara on 15 April 1915. The concert version was given in Madrid on 28 March 1916, and the definitive ballet at the Trianon-⁠Lyrique, Paris, on 22 May 1925 with Falla conducting.

23 min

Recording

Complete, Nos. 1–⁠13Carol Brice, contralto; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Fritz Reiner · 1946
22:40
Fritz Reiner and the Pittsburgh Symphony recorded all thirteen numbers of Falla’s ballet El amor brujo, with the contralto Carol Brice, in February 1946. The Ritual Fire Dance is on side three of the six-side Columbia set.
Listening notes
1. Thirteen numbers on six sides
  Falla’s complete ballet takes up six 78-rpm sides, with its thirteen numbers spread across them. The contralto Carol Brice sings on sides 1, 4 and 6. Midnight and the Ritual Fire Dance are on side 3.
2. Side one, Nos. 1–⁠3
  Side one ends with the contralto’s Song of the sorrows of love, No. 3, after the Introduction and Scene and In the cave at night.
3. The apparition and Dance of Terror
  The dead husband’s ghost appears. In the Dance of Terror that follows, he frightens Candelas and her new lover Carmelo, and the music becomes fast and rhythmic.
4. Gitanería for Pastora Imperio, 1915
  The first version was a gitanería with songs, dances and spoken text, written around the dancer Pastora Imperio, whose mother suggested an old Andalusian legend. On the day of the première, 15 April 1915, Falla told a Madrid paper that he and his collaborators had produced a new, unusual work, one they had “felt”.
5. Ritual Fire Dance
  Candelas dances to exorcise the ghost. The Chester piano edition of 1921 carries the subtitle “pour chasser les mauvais esprits” (to drive away evil spirits).
6. Carol Brice, Pittsburgh, 1946
  Carol Brice, born in Sedalia, North Carolina, in 1918, was the first Black musician to win the Naumburg Award, in 1944. She recorded the ballet with Reiner at the Syria Mosque on 5 February 1946.
7. Side four, Nos. 9 and 10
  Side four holds a short scene, then the contralto’s Song of the will-o’-the-wisp. Roger Nichols compared it to Carmen: “love is not to be caught”. Meanwhile Lucía draws the ghost away from the lovers.
8. Pantomima in 7/8
  The Pantomima, No. 11, takes up a whole side of the set. It is in an asymmetric 7/8 as the ghost’s power wanes. In 1959 Poulenc based the third of his Novelettes for piano on its theme.
9. Dance of the Game of Love
  While Lucía distracts the ghost, Candelas and Carmelo exchange the kiss of perfect love. They then mock the ghost in the final number, the Dance of the Game of Love.
10. Finale: Morning bells
  The finale, the bells of dawn (“campanas del amanecer”), closes the ballet. The contralto is heard again on the final side.
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