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The premiere of the original version, choreographed by Leonide Massine, took place at the Alhambra Theatre in London on 22nd July 1919, performed by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The legendary impresario, with his keen eye for talent, commissioned Manuel de Falla to rewrite his 1917 ballet-pantomime El corregidor y la molinera, originally created for a chamber orchestra. Diaghilev and his young choreographer Leonide Massine attended its premiere in Madrid because, during the First World War and thanks to the help of King Alfonso XIII – whom they regarded as their ‘godfather’ – the Ballets Russes were able to perform (and thus survive) in neutral Spain.

Gregorio Martínez Sierra and María Lejárraga had adapted Pedro Antonio de Alarcón’s 1874 novel, based on a popular legend, for the theatre. In 1915, the couple had collaborated with the musician from Cádiz on El amor brujo, a gypsy-themed piece for Pastora Imperio that Antonia Mercé La Argentina premiered as a ballet in 1925. Falla composed El sombrero de tres picos according to Massine’s instructions, adapting the scenes to his choreographic vision, much like when Tchaikovsky wrote his famous ballets in accordance with the requirements of the choreographer Marius Petipa. This fact is very important when discussing authorship, as it is the choreographer who asks the composer for the structure, nuances or rhythm they desire in the score; it is not a case of finding an existing composition and then creating the choreography.

During his tours of Spain between 1916 and 1918, Leonide Massine had become captivated by Spanish dance. Not just flamenco, but also our diverse range of dances. He was accompanied by a local artist hired by Diaghilev to immerse himself in the culture, Félix Fernández, a spectacular flamenco dancer – so they say – in his solo performances – the true essence of flamenco dance – but less suited to fitting into a choreographed piece requiring academic rigour.

Unfortunately, Félix Fernández would pay dearly for his inability to adapt to the discipline of choreography: after seeing that his name did not appear as the lead in El sombrero de tres picos at its London premiere in 1919, his mind suffered a severe breakdown and he would spend the rest of his life confined to a mental asylum in England, until his death in 1941. It is the saddest chapter in the making of El sombrero… In 2004, the National Ballet premiered El loco, a ballet based on Félix’s story, with choreography by Javier Latorre, a libretto by Francisco López and music by Mauricio Sotelo and Juan Manuel Cañizares.

In Antonio’s version, El sombrero de tres picos triumphs as a choreography that draws on the language of Spanish dance. Premiered in 1958 at the Granada International Music and Dance Festival, as we mentioned earlier, it is in Antonio’s version that the ballet truly comes into its own, as Manuel de Falla’s score is a masterpiece in the stylisation of our popular rhythms and melodies.

Massine’s 1919 creation, in short, is nothing more than a ‘fantasy’ on our dance – as we noted earlier – since, although the Russian choreographer and dancer immersed himself in ‘all things Spanish’ and learnt some steps and forms of our dance expression, he was not an artist with a full training in Spanish dance and, therefore, often fell into what we might call ‘false Spanish’.

Cristina Marinero

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