This recording from Barcelona is of two of Falla's stage pieces. The gitaneria or 'gipsy scene' called El amor brujo was originally a balleticoperatic scena in two scenes that was presented in Madrid in 1915. A year later, however, the composer reshaped it as a concert piece, omitting the existing vocal part of the gipsy woman Candelas who by seeking supernatural aid is able to bring back the lover who has deserted her for another. Finally, it reached the stage again as a ballet in 1925, and it is only now that Antonio Gallego (who also provides the booklet-note) has restored the sung text and the composer's original orchestration for 15 instruments. This version is performed here with some panache by a Barcelona theatre orchestra under Josep Pons. There are texts in Spanish, French and English both for this work and Master Peter's Puppet-Show (though in fact, the stage directions for El amor brujo are in Catalan), but the words, as sung here by authentic-sounding artists, are clear and whether she is singing or speaking, Ginesa Ortega is most effective as the passionate gitana Candelas, a lady of such strong personality that one suspects that even a sturdy gipsy lover might be flattened by its force. The famous ''Ritual Fire Dance'' appears quite early, on track 4 of the 16 that constitute the whole work, but is here called ''Dance at the end of the day'', while the languorous ''Pantomime'' in 7/8 time occurs in the introduction to the second scene. Though the instrumental playing is less exciting than the singing, this work is well worth getting to know in its original form and so utterly Spanish that one is surprised to read that its first critics thought it too French.
In the other work, a puppet opera written for the salon of the Princesse de Polignac and dating from 1922, the singers playing Master Peter and the boy narrator called El Trujaman are, of course, male despite their first names and the treble Joan Martin, in the important latter role, mostly manages to keep his lengthy recitatives interesting. This is an attractive disc, although both the performance and recording of El retablo de Maese Pedro, a work notably hard to bring off successfully, could have done with still more impact.'