El Amor Brujo Study Guide

Festival Ballet Providence offers a Discover Dance performance on February 9th at 10:00 am for school children (suggested age is middle school to high school age), senior groups and social service agency groups. The performance will be the world premiere of El Amor Brujo, which has been choreographed by Gianni Di Marco for Festival Ballet Providence. As with the majority of dance productions, this one has no spoken dialogue. The story is told entirely through the movement of the dancers and the elements of the music. So the choreographer is very important, as he interprets the story, and tell his version through the steps Here is the story line he has chosen to tell.

El Amor Brujo Synopsis

Candela, alone behind a veil, thinks of the two men who cause great emotional conflict in her life. One is the Ghost of a man with whom she was once in love. The other is Carmelo, the man she now loves. Carmelo realizes how love torn Candela is and swears to bring her to her senses. Candela, in her turmoil over the past, is desperate to break loose, but feels unable to escape the hold of the Ghost. Other women, sympathetic to Candela’s plight, try to settle her anxiety. However, once they have succeeded in calming her, the Ghost returns to reassert his hold over Candela. Sadly she is left with the overwhelming sense that there is no escape, and no way to move forward with her life. Carmelo returns and attempts in vain to convince Candela to leave her past behind. She simply cannot.

The lovers know of a gypsy woman full of mystery and magic, with powers to reach into the netherworld. Candela seeks her assistance, and in time, begins to feel there is hope. The gypsy uses her powers to seduce the Ghost, and she vanquishes the ghost and his spell.

The Gypsy woman dances in ritual celebration of the occasion. Candela and Carmelo now dance a lover’s duet. The gypsy returns to confirm the truth and destiny of the lovers, who are now free to wed.

Original Story

There are variations of this story that accompany other versions of the ballet.

Some say that the marriage for Candela was an arranged married to Jose and that she and he were both in love with someone else. Carmelo, the man Candela was in love with, catches Jose around with his love. This causes a great battle of swords between the two gypsy men. This happens because while Carmelo loves Candela and wants to be with her, Jose is wed to her and should be faithful no matter the situation. Carmelo ends up slaying Candela’s husband and is now free to be with her. However, the ghost of Jose haunts them in an unforgiving manner. This is when the couple enlists the help of Lucia, the friend and former love of the ghost of Jose, to help free them from his haunting grasp. Eventually Candela and Carmelo are freed and are able to live on happily.

In another take on the story Candela is haunted and terrorized by the ghost of her past husband, Jose. Candela and her new love can only be freed from the evil spirit with the exchange of the perfect true love’s kiss. Jose’s evil spirit makes this task is especially hard, as in seen in the Dance of Terror. While Candela prepares to do the Ritual Fire Dance to exorcise her dead husband’s spirit, Carmelo takes matters into his own hands, and enlists, Lucia, a beautiful young gypsy woman to distract the ghost of Jose. Carmelo’s plan is successful allowing the couple to have their kiss of perfect love, freeing them from the ghost forever. At the end of the play the ghost is mocked and morning bells celebrate the final exorcism in the Dance of the Game of Love.

Translation of Song of Love’s Sorrow (Cancion del amor dolido)

Ah! I don’t know what I’m feeling,
Nor what is happening to me,
When that cursed gypsy deserts me!
How you burn, Candela!
Stronger than the fires of hell
Burns my blood, enflamed by jealousy!
Ah! When the river sings,
If water doesn’t quench the fire
I am condemned to suffer!
I am poisoned by love!
My sorrow will kill me!
Ah!

El Amor Brujo

• El Amor Brujo is a musical love story composed by Manuel de Falla, which was originally written for a legendary ballerina of Gypsy background, Pastora Imperio, in 1915.
• El Amor Brujo means literally, Spell-bound Love, but generally anglicized as "Love, the Magician". Or "Love, the Wizard"
• Tells the story of a gypsy girl, Candela, who is in love with a man Carmelo. Together they enlist the help of one of his beautiful friends to help release her from the spirit of her past lover.
• The poetry was written by G. Martinez Sierra (1881-1947), a Spanish writer, dramatist, and theatre director. Sierra was a key figure in the revival of the Spanish theatrical avant-garde in the early 20th century.
• Once the piece was transformed from a voice, actor, and chamber orchestra piece to a ballet with a full symphony orchestra and with three short songs for mezzo-sopranos it became a success.
• Songs are in the Andalusian dialect of the gypsy language, which includes Ritual Fire Dance and the Dance of Terror, adding to its Andalusian-folkloric colour.
• In 1986, Carlos Saura directed a film based off of the ballet as the last part of a three series collection, which included Bodas de Sangre and Carmen.

The Composer

• Manuel de Falla was a Spanish nationalist who captured the essence and spirit of his homeland through the expression of the sol (sunshine) and sombra (shadow) of Spain in his music.
• Manuel de Falla was born into a wealthy family southwestern Spain in 1876, prior to moving to Madrid.
• At the age of 20 he enrolled in the Madrid Conservatory and earned the school's highest awards in piano.
• He began his career by writing zarzuelas.
• In 1905, Falla produced his only opera and first major work, La Vida Breve (The Brief Life). Despite winning a national competition with this piece, Falla could not get it published or performed.
• Falla spent seven years in Paris learning from his new mentors and writing Four Spanish Pieces for piano and Seven Popular Spanish Songs.
• Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain) for piano and orchestra was also released at the time of the reworked EL Amor Brujo in 1916.
• Falla wrote a piece for the Ballet Russe, El sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat), in 1919, based on a folk-tale of an elderly lecherous governor's comic and frustrating attempts to seduce a miller's wife.
• In 1923 Falla took his childhood entertainment to new levels when he created a piece based around the scene in Don Quixote when the knight ruins the puppet theater thinking the stage villains were real, in El Retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show).
• Falla’s last major piece was produced in 1926, Harpsichord Concerto.
• Falla’s small numbered contributions to music, 15 pieces, have been anything but small in the effects of bringing Spain into the eyes of world as a great musical contributor, as each of his pieces are acknowledged masterpieces.
• Falla died on Nov. 14, 1946, in Argentina.

Questions for Discussion

• What are zarzuelas?
• What characterizes Andalusian Music?
• What does avant-garde mean? What do you think it meant when the music was composed as opposed to today? Are there any examples of performers who are avant-garde today?
• How do you think the Song of Love’s Sorrows, using the interpretation, relate to the ballet?
• What was your favorite part of the ballet and why? How would you say the roles of men and women differ in the ballet? Do they dance differently? How does each show their strength?
• Why do you think Ritual Fire Dance and the Dance of Terror are such popular parts to this ballet?

Answers

• Zarzuelas are a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating dances also called sarswela in the Philippines.
• Avant-garde are works that are experimental or novel, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics.
• Andalusia, the region in southern Spain, is best known for flamenco music and dance that is Gypsy in origin and popular throughout the world. Traditionally, Andalusian music is sung by one singer, the Cantador. Similarly, Falla’s music style is characterized by the cante hondo, which literally means “deep song.” To perform their songs, Andalusia gypsies use a low-voiced throb called cante hondo.

Class Projects

Send us a review!
Write about how your experience at the ballet changed you or touched your life. Include everything from how you felt during the show, talks with peers, teachers, and parents afterwards, and whether or not you would come again and what friend you would bring with you next time.

Understanding that this is a world premiere, do you think the choreographer succeeded with his production of El Amor Brujo?

• Do you think the set gave enough background to understand the basic elements of the story?
• Did the costumes add in any way? How does the movement expand the expressiveness of the performers differently from how an actor speaks and moves to portray a character and his emtions? Is the story and the emotional content adequately portrayed without words? Was it interesting? Did it draw you in?
• Do you think the story line was told well enough through the choreography? What worked best? What needed some improvement? What left you somewhat confused?

Find other story ballets online and read about the story it is telling. Why do you think that story was made into a ballet? What elements of a story do you think work well for a ballet? With that in mind, are there other stories you know, or would like to tell, that might be suitable as a dance work. What would the libretto (story line) be? What music would you consider choosing to use for such a piece? What would the costumes look like? And would there be sets? Become your own choreographer and think about the piece you would create!