''El amor brujo'' (, "Love, the sorcerer") is a ballet by

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20t ...

. The libretto is by María de la O Lejárraga García, although for years it was attributed to her husband

Gregorio Martínez Sierra Gregorio Martínez Sierra (6 May 1881 – 1 October 1947) was a Spanish writer, poet, dramatist, and theatre director, a key figure in the revival of the Spanish theatrical avant-garde in the early twentieth century. Biography Firstborn son o ...

. It exists in three versions as well as a piano suite drawn from four of its movements. Andalusian in character, its music includes the celebrated '' Danza ritual del fuego (Ritual Fire Dance)'', the ''Canción del fuego fatuo (Song of the

Will-o'-the-Wisp In folklore, a will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-wisp, or ; ), is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travellers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. The phenomenon is known in the United Kingdom by a variety of names, including jack-o'- ...

)'' and the ''Danza del terror''. Its songs are in

Andalusian Spanish The Andalusian dialects of Spanish (, , ) are spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla, and Gibraltar. They include perhaps the most distinct of the southern variants of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern varieties in a number ...

Versions and performance history

Gitanería (1915)

''El amor brujo'' was commissioned in 1914 as a ''gitanería'', or danced

gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

entertainment, dedicated to the

flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...

dancer and cantaora Pastora Imperio. It was finished the next year but its premiere, on 15 April at the Teatro Lara in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, proved unsuccessful. This version, in two scenes, is for dancers and actors and is scored for cantaora voice and chamber ensemble.

First revised version (1916)

Falla then revised the ballet by removing its spoken dialogue, replacing the cantaora part with three songs for

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

and enlarging the accompaniment for sextet and small orchestra. The plot was slightly changed as well. This more concise version, still in two scenes, was played on 12 March 1916 by members of the

Madrid Symphony Orchestra Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

under

Enrique Fernández Arbós Enrique Fernández Arbós (24 December 1863 – 2 June 1939) was a Spanish violinist, composer and conductor who divided much of his career between Madrid and London. He originally made his name as a virtuoso violinist and later as one of Spain's ...

. But it was modified several times, starting the following year when Fernández Arbós proposed a production at the Teatro Real.

Ballet pantomímico (1924)

By 1924 Falla had evolved ''El amor brujo'' into the one-act ''ballet pantomímico'' best known today, mainly by enlarging its orchestration. This was published by Chester the next year and given in Paris. It premiered in America on 17 March 1927 at Philadelphia's Metropolitan Opera House with

Alexander Smallens Alexander Smallens (January 1, 1889 – November 24, 1972) was a Russian-born American conductor and music director. Biography Smallens was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and emigrated to the United States as a child, becoming an Ame ...

conducting the

Philadelphia Civic Opera Company The Philadelphia Civic Opera Company (PCOC) was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that was actively performing between 1924 and 1930. Founded by Philadelphia socialite Mrs. Henry M. Tracy, the company was established p ...

and mezzo-soprano soloist Kathryn Noll.

Suite of excerpts for piano (1922)

Before completing the published ballet, Falla made a suite for piano comprising four of the movements: ''Pantomima'', ''Danza del terror'', ''Romance del pescador'' and ''Danza ritual del fuego''. This is G69 in the published works.

Synopsis

''El amor brujo'' is the story of an Andalusian gypsy woman called Candela. Although her affection is for a man named Carmelo, as a girl she was promised to be married to another man (then a boy). After many years Candela's husband has died (at the hands of the husband of a woman named Lucia), but he continues to haunt his wife. The entire village knows about the haunting, but still brands Candela as crazy because she dances every night with her husband’s ghost ("Danza del terror"). Candela, now a widow, is free to establish a relationship with Carmelo, but continues to be haunted by her husband's ghost. After a conversation with other women of the village, Candela finally comes to realise that her husband was unfaithful to her, despite all her efforts to make their marriage work; her husband's lover is revealed to have been Lucia. Candela and Carmelo get advice that a ritual dance is necessary to cast the ghost off (" Danza ritual del fuego"), but it does not work. The ghost is still obsessed with Candela's soul. Candela manages to trick Lucía to come that night, with the excuse of hooking her up with Carmelo. As she turns up, the nightly ritual of Candela's dance with her husband's ghost begins, but at the last moment Candela moves away from her husband and Lucía is taken away by her now dead lover ("Danza del juego de amor"). Dawn breaks, Candela and Carmelo are now truly free to enjoy their love.

Movements

# ''Introducción y escena'' ('Introduction and scene') # ''En la cueva'' ('In the cave') # ''Canción del amor dolido'' ('Song of suffering love') # ''El aparecido (El espectro)'' ('The apparition') # ''Danza del terror'' ('Dance of terror') # ''El círculo mágico (Romance del pescador)'' ('The magic circle') # ''A media noche: los sortilegios'' # '' Danza ritual del fuego'' # ''Escena'' ('Scene') # ''Canción del fuego fatuo'' ('Song of the will-o'-the-wisp') # ''Pantomima'' ('Pantomime') # ''Danza del juego de amor'' ('Dance of the game of love') # ''Final – las campanas del amanecer'' ('Finale – the bells of sunrise')

Recordings

Gitanería (1915)

*1991: Josep Pons with the orchestra of the Teatre Lliure, 'cantaora' Ginesa Ortega. Harmonia Mundi HMC905213

Ballet pantomímico (1924)

*1946 (February 5):

Fritz Reiner Frederick Martin Reiner (; December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was an American conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to promine ...

with the

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra is resident at Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. Since 2008, the orchestra's music director is Manfred Ho ...

, Contralto Carol Brice. Columbia Masterworks MM-633 (3 12" 78 RPM discs); Also Columbia LP ML-2006. *1953: Ataúlfo Argenta with the

Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire The Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire () was a symphony orchestra established in Paris in 1828. It gave its first concert on 9 March 1828 with music by Beethoven, Rossini, Meifreid, Rode and Cherubini. Administered by the phi ...

, mezzo-soprano Ana-Maria Iriarte. EMI 7243 5 69235 2 2 *1955:

Ernest Ansermet Ernest Alexandre Ansermet (; 11 November 1883 – 20 February 1969)"Ansermet, Ernest" in '' The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 435. was a Swiss conductor. Biography Anserme ...

with the

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) is a Swiss symphony orchestra, based in Geneva at the Victoria Hall. In addition to symphony concerts, the OSR performs as the opera orchestra in productions at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. History ...

, mezzo-soprano Marina de Gabaráin, Decca 417 691–2 *1959: Jesus Arambarri conducting Orquesta De Conciertos De Madrid, contralto Inés Rivadeneira *1960:

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. H ...

with the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...

, mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett-Carter, Columbia MS 6147 *1961 & 1964: Carlo Maria Giulini with the

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI Classics, EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Rich ...

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

Victoria de los Ángeles Victoria de los Ángeles López García (1 November 192315 January 2005) was a Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. ...

EMI 7 69 037 2 *1963:

with the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the ensemble has been based in the Symphony Center since 1904 and plays a summer season at the Ravinia F ...

, soprano

Leontyne Price Leontyne Price ( born Mary Violet Leontine Price February 10, 1927) is an American spinto soprano who was the first African-American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera. ...

, Mercury *1965:

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (; March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in t ...

with the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin, mezzo-soprano

Grace Bumbry Grace Melzia Bumbry (January 4, 1937 – May 7, 2023) was an American opera singer, considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, who also ventured to soprano roles. She belonged to a pioneering generation of African-American c ...

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

e *1966:

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (born Rafael Frühbeck; 15 September 1933 – 11 June 2014) was a Spanish conductor and composer. Frühbeck was born in Burgos, Spain to a family of German ancestry. He first took up conducting while on military serv ...

with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Nati Mistral, Decca 417 786–2 *1978: Luis Antonio Garcia Navarro with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

, mezzo-soprano

Teresa Berganza Teresa Berganza Vargas OAXS (16 March 1933 – 13 May 2022) was a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with roles such as Rossini's Rosina and La Cenerentola, and later Bizet's Carmen, admired for her technical virtuosity, mu ...

429181-2 *1983:

Charles Dutoit Charles Édouard Dutoit is a Swiss conductor. He is the principal guest conductor for the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia. In 2017, he became the 103rd recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal Award. Dutoit held previous positions ...

with the

Montreal Symphony Orchestra The Montreal Symphony Orchestra () is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The orchestra’s home is the Montreal Symphony House at Place des Arts. History Several orchestras were precursor ensembles to the curren ...

, mezzo-soprano Huguette Tourangeau, London 410 008-2 *1994:

Eduardo Mata Eduardo Mata (5 September 19424 January 1995) was a Mexican conductor and composer. Career Mata was born in Mexico City. He studied guitar privately for three years before enrolling in the National Conservatory of Music. From 1960 to 1963 he ...

with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, mezzo-soprano Marta Senn, Dorian *1996: Edmon Colomer with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, 'cantaora' Esperanza Fernández. Valois Auvidis V 4768.

Films

In 1967

Francisco Rovira Beleta Francisco Rovira Beleta (1913 in Barcelona – 23 June 1999) was a twice Academy Awards, Academy Award nominee Spanish screenwriter and film director. His film ''The Robbers (film), Los atracadores'' was entered into the 12th Berlin International ...

directed a film version. It was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

, but lost to

Jiří Menzel Jiří Menzel () (23 February 1938 – 5 September 2020) was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films ...

's '' Closely Observed Trains''. However, it won the "National Syndicate of Spectacle, Spain" award. In 1986, Spanish director

Carlos Saura Carlos Saura Atarés (4 January 1932 – 10 February 2023) was a Spanish film director, photographer and writer. With Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodóvar, he is considered to be among Spain's great filmmakers. He had a long and prolific career th ...

directed '' El amor brujo'' based on the ballet, starring and choreographed by

Antonio Gades Antonio Esteve Ródenas or Antonio Gades (14 November 1936 – 20 July 2004) was a Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer. He helped to popularize the art form on the international stage. He was born in Elda, Alicante, and was the father ...

. It was the third in his trilogy of dance films, following ''Bodas de sangre'' (''

Blood Wedding ''Blood Wedding'' () is a tragedy by Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1932 and first performed at Teatro Beatriz in Madrid in March 1933, then later that year in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The play is set in rural Spa ...

'') and ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

''. The film filled out the story with spoken dialogue, but nevertheless used the entire score of the ballet, along with additional songs and dances performed by characters in the film. The

Orquesta Nacional de España The Orquesta Nacional de España (Spanish National Orchestra) is a Spanish orchestra based in Madrid. History Although the orchestra originated as of 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, it was legally founded in 1940, by the merging of Pérez Casa ...

was conducted by Jesús López-Cobos, and the

cante jondo ''Cante jondo'' () is a vocal style in flamenco, an unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music. The name means "deep song" in Spanish, with ''hondo'' ("deep") spelled with J () as a form of eye dialect, because traditional Andalusian pronunciation ...

singer heard on the soundtrack was

Rocío Jurado María del Rocío Mohedano Jurado (, 18 September 1943 – 1 June 2006), better known as Rocío Jurado, was a Spanish singer and actress. She was born in Chipiona (Cádiz) and nicknamed "La más grande" ("The Greatest"). In 2000 in New York Ci ...

. A

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

, now out of print, was issued by

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

Music

The section "Cancion del Fuego Fatuo" was recorded in 1960 by jazz musician

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

as "Will O' the Wisp" in an arrangement by

Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian Americans, Canadian–American jazz pianist, Music arranger, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators i ...

for their album ''

Sketches of Spain ''Sketches of Spain'' is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released on July 18, 1960 by Columbia Records. Recording took place between November 1959 and March 1960 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City. An extended ...

''.

References

Notes Sources * Kennedy, Michael, ed. (2006). ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music''. Oxford:Oxford University Press.

External links

An essay on El amor brujo
by Peter Gutmann, accessed 25 December 2009
El amor brujo
from the

Martha Argerich Martha Argerich (; ; born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of eight before receiving further piano training in Europe. At an early age, she won sev ...

Project
YouTube: Ritual Fire Dance from ''El amor brujo'', accessed 25 December 2009Libretto on Spanish Wikisource, accessed 25 December 2009Notes on El Amor Brujo by Sato Moughalian, Artistic Director, Perspectives Ensemble
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amor Brujo, El 1910s in Spanish music 1915 ballets 1915 compositions 1916 compositions 1925 compositions Ballets by Manuel de Falla Compositions about wizards Compositions by Manuel de Falla Orchestral suites