The story of l'Heure Espagnole takes place in Toledo, region Castile -La Mancha, Spain, inside the home/workshop of Señor Torquemada, the town watchmaker, and his wife, Concepcion, in the 18th Century.
The title itself literally translates to "The Spanish Hour", but could carry a double meaning to the french ear along the lines of "How the Spanish Keep Time".
The Cast is as follows:
Torquemada: Town watchmaker, Baritone, Husband to Concepcion.
Concepcion: Wife of Torquemada, Mezzo-Soprano (although zwisschen), woman of many talents. Una Maja.
Ramiro: A muleteer. Unaware of what he's getting into. Baritone-Martin (high french baritone, this role was originally played by the same singer who pioneered Pélléas in Pélléas et Mélisande)
Gonsalve: Tenor, Concepcion's lover, a poet, writer of songs and sonnets. Un Majo.
Don Inigo: Bass-Buffo, Another one of Concepcion's (lesser preferred) suitors. A Banker.
The Opera is divided into 21 scenes with an introduction that makes use of the furthest ends of the spectrum in timbre and sound of the orchestra. Slapsticks, percussion, stringed sliding, and sousaphones are heard imitating the sounds of clocks, and the people, Torquemada and Concepcion, could be compared to the rotating automatons of a large cuckoo clock, brought to life by lyric fantasy.
The story begins as Ramiro, a muleteer, needs his watch fixed desperately and enters Torquemada's shop, where he recounts the tale of this broken family heirloom; a watch capable of stopping an oncoming bull. Torquemada is fascinated but is soon interrupted by his ardent wife, Concepcion, who reminds him that it is Thursday, and not only is it the day in which he must go around town to regulate the town clocks, but it is her only day "to herself" in the entire week to be "alone". Torquemada leaves in a hurry as she berates him. Ramiro, hell-bent on getting his watch fixed decides to stay until Torquemada has returned, which could be quite a while.
Meanwhile, Concepcion readies herself for a visit from one of her gentlemen callers. Annoyed by Ramiro's presence, she asks him to move an old Catalonian clack that is evidently quite heavy into her room up the stairs, saying that she'd wanted it there for ages but her husband was too weak to do it himself. But of course she wouldn't want to "impose". Coquettish to the end, she convinces him to move the clock as he exclaims that it would be no problem at all, and that the clock would be "light as a feather", "I could lift it with a finger!". He moves the clock upstairs.
Gonsalve enters in a fury of poems and lyrics. Too preoccupied with inspiration and prose, he ignores the randied Concepcion's advances. She hides him from Ramiro, inside another clock, whom she asks to move to the place of the other he had just moved because she was "mistaken". With Gonsalve inside the clock and headed to her bedroom, she feels certain that she can shoo away Ramiro to retire there. However, as soon as the clock makes it upstairs, Don Iñigo Gomez, enters to woo Concepcion and she runs up to accompany Ramiro instead of dealing with the Don. Alone, he conceals himself inside another clock.
The story progresses ridiculously as Ramiro again is asked to swap the clocks up and down the stairs with the two men trapped inside. Concepcion reaches a point of nauseating frustration with the three men. Two of them in clocks in different places, and Ramiro whom she's realized is in fact quite muscular, and handsome, too; she laments her frustration being "two steps from Estramadura" dealing with this mess, and having a husband to whom she'll have to remain "fidèle et pure" (faithful and pure).
Torquemada returns and the two men concealed in clocks, as well as Ramiro, have to fib to make it seem as if they were simply pondering buying clocks. Overjoyed by having so many customers, Torquemada breaks out into song. The five characters break the wall and become much like a greek chorus telling a the moral of the story in a Habañera quintet; a sonnet by the Italian Poet, Boccaccio:
"Entre tous les amants, seul amant efficace,
Il arrive un moment dans les déduits d'amour
Où le Muletier a son tour!"
"Among all lovers, only the efficient succeed,
There arrives a moment, in the quarrels of love,
For the Muleteer to have his turn!"
The title itself literally translates to "The Spanish Hour", but could carry a double meaning to the french ear along the lines of "How the Spanish Keep Time".
The Cast is as follows:
Torquemada: Town watchmaker, Baritone, Husband to Concepcion.
Concepcion: Wife of Torquemada, Mezzo-Soprano (although zwisschen), woman of many talents. Una Maja.
Ramiro: A muleteer. Unaware of what he's getting into. Baritone-Martin (high french baritone, this role was originally played by the same singer who pioneered Pélléas in Pélléas et Mélisande)
Gonsalve: Tenor, Concepcion's lover, a poet, writer of songs and sonnets. Un Majo.
Don Inigo: Bass-Buffo, Another one of Concepcion's (lesser preferred) suitors. A Banker.
The Opera is divided into 21 scenes with an introduction that makes use of the furthest ends of the spectrum in timbre and sound of the orchestra. Slapsticks, percussion, stringed sliding, and sousaphones are heard imitating the sounds of clocks, and the people, Torquemada and Concepcion, could be compared to the rotating automatons of a large cuckoo clock, brought to life by lyric fantasy.
The story begins as Ramiro, a muleteer, needs his watch fixed desperately and enters Torquemada's shop, where he recounts the tale of this broken family heirloom; a watch capable of stopping an oncoming bull. Torquemada is fascinated but is soon interrupted by his ardent wife, Concepcion, who reminds him that it is Thursday, and not only is it the day in which he must go around town to regulate the town clocks, but it is her only day "to herself" in the entire week to be "alone". Torquemada leaves in a hurry as she berates him. Ramiro, hell-bent on getting his watch fixed decides to stay until Torquemada has returned, which could be quite a while.
Meanwhile, Concepcion readies herself for a visit from one of her gentlemen callers. Annoyed by Ramiro's presence, she asks him to move an old Catalonian clack that is evidently quite heavy into her room up the stairs, saying that she'd wanted it there for ages but her husband was too weak to do it himself. But of course she wouldn't want to "impose". Coquettish to the end, she convinces him to move the clock as he exclaims that it would be no problem at all, and that the clock would be "light as a feather", "I could lift it with a finger!". He moves the clock upstairs.
Gonsalve enters in a fury of poems and lyrics. Too preoccupied with inspiration and prose, he ignores the randied Concepcion's advances. She hides him from Ramiro, inside another clock, whom she asks to move to the place of the other he had just moved because she was "mistaken". With Gonsalve inside the clock and headed to her bedroom, she feels certain that she can shoo away Ramiro to retire there. However, as soon as the clock makes it upstairs, Don Iñigo Gomez, enters to woo Concepcion and she runs up to accompany Ramiro instead of dealing with the Don. Alone, he conceals himself inside another clock.
The story progresses ridiculously as Ramiro again is asked to swap the clocks up and down the stairs with the two men trapped inside. Concepcion reaches a point of nauseating frustration with the three men. Two of them in clocks in different places, and Ramiro whom she's realized is in fact quite muscular, and handsome, too; she laments her frustration being "two steps from Estramadura" dealing with this mess, and having a husband to whom she'll have to remain "fidèle et pure" (faithful and pure).
Torquemada returns and the two men concealed in clocks, as well as Ramiro, have to fib to make it seem as if they were simply pondering buying clocks. Overjoyed by having so many customers, Torquemada breaks out into song. The five characters break the wall and become much like a greek chorus telling a the moral of the story in a Habañera quintet; a sonnet by the Italian Poet, Boccaccio:
"Entre tous les amants, seul amant efficace,
Il arrive un moment dans les déduits d'amour
Où le Muletier a son tour!"
"Among all lovers, only the efficient succeed,
There arrives a moment, in the quarrels of love,
For the Muleteer to have his turn!"