El Amor brujo

Conceived initially as a “gitanería” (a “gypsy style” song and dance entertainment), the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla’s El amor brujo (Love, the Magician) took a full decade to reach its definitive form as a classical ballet in 1925. It tells the story of a widowed Roma woman, Candelas, in love with Carmelo but still in thrall to her unfaithful first husband, whose ghost haunts her. Desperate to cast off his malevolent influence, she enlists the help of her “enchantingly pretty” friend Lucia, who diverts the ghost’s attention. Carmelo is finally able to give Candelas the “kiss of perfect love”, and the pair triumphantly banish the ghost for ever. Falla’s music for El amor brujo is rich in Spanish flavour, with dark-hued, smoky tones and skirling woodwind writing. Three of the ballet’s nine sections include earthy, Andalusian-style folk songs for a mezzo-soprano soloist, performed in some recordings by an authentic flamenco singer. Elsewhere there are numerous examples of Falla’s remarkable ability to conjure richly evocative moods and scenarios with a few deft strokes of his orchestral palette. The simmering “Ritual Fire Dance” is the ballet’s most famous number, although the alluringly seductive “Pantomima” and the vertiginous “Dance of Terror” are two other highlights in a score packed with atmosphere and a sense of local colour.