El amor brujo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
El amor brujo (Love, the Magician) is a piece of music composed by Manuel de Falla. It was initially commissioned in 1914-15 as a gitanería (gypsy piece) by Pastora Imperio, a renowned gypsy dancer, and was scored for voice, actors, and chamber orchestra. It failed.
In 1925, Falla transformed it into a ballet scored for a full symphony orchestra with three short songs for mezzo-soprano. In this form, El amor brujo succeeded.
El Amor brujo tells the story of Candelas, a gypsy girl, whose love for Carmelo is tormented by the ghost of her faithless former lover. The work is distinctively Andalusian in character with the songs in the Andalusian dialect of the Gypsies. The music contains moments of remarkable beauty and originality and includes the celebrated Ritual Fire Dance and the Dance of Terror.
In 1986, Spanish director Carlos Saura directed a film based on the ballet, starring, and choreographed by, Antonio Gades. It was the third in his trilogy of dance films (the others were Bodas de sangre and Carmen). The film fleshed out the story with spoken dialogue, but nevertheless used the entire score of the ballet. The Orquesta Nacional de España was conducted by Jesus Lopez-Cobos, and the singer heard on the soundtrack was the late Rocio Jurado. A soundtrack album, now out of print, was issued by EMI.
[edit] External links
- Lyrics to the songs
- An excellent essay on El Amor Brujo by Peter Gutmann
- El Amor Brujo from the Martha Argerich Project
