It's not British, but...Manuel de Falla's El Sombrero De Tres Picos

The liner notes (written in Spanish and English) for this CD presents a problem. More about that later. The raison d’être of this recording is to present Manuel de Falla’s well-loved ballet, The Three-Cornered Hat. There are many editions of this piece on record, so the added value of this present disc is a performance of that piece’s precursor, El Corregidor y la Molinera, a “scenic farce” or “pantomime in two acts” premiered in 1917. The “book” was an adaptation by María Sierra of Pedro Antonio de Alarcón’s El sombrero de tres picos. This in turn had been based on an old Iberian romance, El molinero de Arcos. El Corregidor was conceived for seven actors and a dozen or so instrumentalists. 

In the same year, 1917, de Falla began work on a major revision of El Corregidor which would become his well-known El Sombrero de Tres Picos. Sergei Diaghilev had initiated this when he met the composer and had convinced him to modify the pantomime to give it “a greater theatrical structure.”

The basic outline story of El Sombrero concerns a miller and his wife and their relationship with the Corregidor, (Magistrate) who has amorous intentions towards the lady. He falls into a stream, takes refuge at the mill, and dries himself out. The miller pinches the magistrate’s cloak and his three-cornered hat and leaves a note saying that he has departed to pay his respects to the magistrate’s wife. On finding the missive, the Corregidor puts on the miller’s old clothes, leaves the mill, and is arrested by the local policeman. The locals enjoy his downfall.

Back to the liner notes. I found them difficult to read: they are verbose and often tangential to the matter in hand. Information about the changes that de Falla made to El Corregidor y la Molinera would have been extremely helpful. Not having the score of either piece to hand makes this task difficult. The listener hears many similarities, but also differences. The Fandango: Danza de la Molinera is similar in each score as is the Seguidillas. But new material has been introduced with the conclusion developing in a different manner as well as a brand new Farruca for the Miller.

It would have been good for the liner notes to have contained a detailed synopsis of each work’s progress.

Another point of interest is that the original El Corregidor was scored for a chamber orchestra with piano - each character had their own instrument. The present recording uses full orchestra. Who did the rescoring? I may be missing something…

All this said, this is a remarkable CD. I enjoyed listening to both compositions. They are full of Spanish wit, musical clichés, and sunshine. The playing by Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga and the mezzo-sopranos Carol Garcia and Serena Pérez, under the baton of José Maria Moreno Valiente is superb and matched by an excellent recording.

Track Listing:
Manuel De Falla (1876-1946)
El Corregidor Y La Molinera (The Magistrate and the Miller’s Wife) (1917)
El Sombrero De Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) (1919)
Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga/José Maria Moreno Valiente
rec. 2-5 February 2022, Auditorio Carranque, Toledo, Spain
IBS Classical IBS82023