The musical alchemy of Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla is renowned as the greatest Spanish composer of the early 20th century, whose genius rested in part on his ability to meld diverse stylistic, folk or literary influences into distinctive new musical languages, forging masterworks that would ultimately become cultural emblems of his homeland. Raymond Bisha presents a new release of a 2-work programme that embodies this principle of synthesis: Falla\u2019s heartfelt representation of Gitano or Roma (the preferred term for people commonly referred to as \u2018gypsy\u2019) culture in the original 1915 version of\xa0El amor brujo\xa0(Love, the Magician), and his 1923 puppet opera based on scenes from Miguel de Cervantes\u2019 classic\xa0Don Quixote, in\xa0El retablo de Maese Pedro\xa0(Master Peter\u2019s Puppet Show).