Detailed Instrumentation: Vocal soli (5 roles, ATTBB): Piano or Orchestra accompaniment

Duration: 55 minutes

Description: In 1907, Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) began to compose his one-act theatrical piece, L’HEURE ESPAGNOLE (The Spanish Hour), after his opera-loving father suffered a stroke. It has been suggested that this troubling event inspired him to take his first foray into opera. Maurice Étienne Legrand, under the pseudonym Franc-Nohain, penned the libretto, which was based on his 1904 play of the same name. The plot follows the wife of a clockmaker who tries to seduced several men in his absence, causing them to entrap themselves in her husband’s clocks. Dedicated to Louise Cruppi, it premiered in a double billing with Jules Massenet’s Thérèse on May 19, 1911 at the Opera-Comique in Paris. Reprint edition. Vocal score.

• W110991 / 36-W110991 L’HEURE ESPAGNOLE (SPANISH HOUR) VS $25.95Buy Now