Manuel de Falla

El Sombrero de tres picos

El sombrero de tres picos" ("The Three-Cornered Hat") is a ballet in two acts choreographed by Léonide Massine to music by Manuel de Falla. The ballet was premiered in 1919 in London at the "Alhambra Theatre". The story, of a magistrate infatuated with a miller's faithful wife who attempts to seduce her, derives from the novella of the same name by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. Later, de Falla extracted two suites from the ballet, both following less or more the first act (Suite No.1) and second act (Suite No.2). The music extracted from the ballet for the suites is as fun as the story. It combines traditional Spanish dances with orchestral writing that is some of the most colourful and masterful of the Spanish school. The first suite, "Suite No. 1" with wonderful melodies is now transcribed for Symphonic Band by Spanish arranger Julio Domingo.