The Three-Cornered Hat (El sombrero de tres picos or Le tricorne) is a ballet composed by Manuel de Falla, commissioned in its development by Sergei Diaghilev and performed in its completed form in 1919.
The story of The Three-Cornered Hat is based on the well-known novella by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (born in Granada). It is about a magistrate who has become infatuated with a miller's faithful wife and his attempts to seduce her. The story itself has been filmed several times, usually in Spanish.
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During World War I Manuel de Falla wrote a pantomime ballet in two scenes and called it The Governor and the Miller's Wife ( El corregidor y la molinera). The work was scored for a small chamber orchestra and was performed in 1917.
Sergei Diaghilev, of the Ballets Russes, saw the premiere of El corregidor y la molinera and commissioned de Falla to rewrite the ballet. The outcome was a two-act ballet scored for large orchestra called The Three-Cornered Hat ( El sombrero de tres picos). The Three-Cornered Hat was first performed in London at the Alhambra Theatre on 22 July 1919. Diaghilev asked de Falla to conduct the premiere but de Falla felt he was not experienced enough to conduct a work so complex. After the first rehearsal de Falla handed the baton over to Ernest Ansermet. Sets and costumes were done by Pablo Picasso and choreography by Léonide Massine.
After a short fanfare the curtain rises revealing a mill in Andalusia. The miller is trying to teach a pet blackbird to tell the time. He tells the bird to chirp twice, but instead it chirps three times. Annoyed, the miller scolds the bird and tells it to try again. The bird now chirps four times. The miller gets angry at the bird again and his wife offers it a grape. The bird takes the grape and chirps twice. The miller and his wife laugh over this and continue their work.
Soon the magistrate, his wife, and their bodyguard pass by, taking their daily walk. The procession goes by and the couple returns to their work. The dandified, but lecherous, magistrate is heard coming back. The miller tells his wife that he will hide and that they will play a trick on the magistrate.
The miller hides and the magistrate sees the miller's wife dancing. After her dance she offers him some grapes. When the magistrate gets the grapes the miller's wife runs away with the magistrate following her. Finally he catches her, and the miller jumps out of a bush with a stick. The miller chases the magistrate away and the miller and his wife continue working.
That night, guests are at the miller's house. The miller dances to entertain them. His dance is interrupted by the magistrate's bodyguard, who has come to arrest him on trumped-up charges. After the miller is taken away, the guests leave one by one. The miller's wife goes to sleep and soon the magistrate comes to the mill. On his way to the door the magistrate trips and falls in the river. The miller's wife wakes up and runs away.
The Governor undresses and hangs his clothes on a tree and goes to sleep in the miller's bed. The miller has escaped from prison and sees the magistrate in his bed. The miller thinks that the magistrate is sleeping with his wife and plans to switch clothes with the magistrate, and avenge himself by seducing the magistrate's wife. The miller leaves, dressed as the magistrate, and the magistrate soon wakes up. He goes outside and sees that his clothes are gone, so he dresses in the miller's clothes. The bodyguard comes and sees the magistrate dressed as the miller and goes to arrest him. The miller's wife sees the bodyguard fighting with what looks like her husband and joins in the fight. The miller comes back and sees his wife in the fight and joins it to protect her. The magistrate explains the entire story and the ballet ends with the miller's guests tossing the magistrate up and down in a blanket.
Throughout the ballet Manuel de Falla uses traditional Andalusian folk music. The two songs sung by the mezzo-soprano are examples of cante jondo singing, which often accompanies flamenco music. Cante jondo tells a story and is usually sad.
At one point he quotes the famous opening of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.[1]
There are many recordings of the complete ballet, as well as of the suites extracted from it. In the early 1960s, Ernest Ansermet, the original conductor of the work, recorded it in stereo for London Records (aka Decca). The music was played by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the cante-jondo soloist was Teresa Berganza. It has also been recorded by such conductors as Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Jesús López-Cobos, and Leonard Bernstein has recorded the two suites from the ballet with the New York Philharmonic.
The original pantomime El corregidor y la molinera has been recorded by Josep Pons and Orquestra del Teatro Lliure for Harmonia Mundi.
The Paris Opera Ballet has recently issued a performance of the complete ballet on a DVD entitled Picasso and Dance. The performance uses not only Massine's original choreography, but actual reproductions of Picasso's sets and costumes. It is, so far, the only performance of the ballet issued on video.
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