L’Heure espagnole | L’Enfant et les sortilèges

The Spanish Hour | The Child and the Spells Maurice Ravel Torquemada has eyes only for his wife, Concepción. But he is not the only one. In his clock shop, suitors follow one another to the rhythm of the ticking. From stratagem to misunderstanding, Concepción hopes to take advantage of her husband's absence for a gallivanting adventure. At the end of a burlesque ballet, all the admirers end up hidden inside clocks, transported upstairs by Ramiro, a muleteer... Scandal! What is this opera subject where men lurk inside clocks to be subsequently transported to the bedroom of an unfaithful woman? Upon the premiere of The Spanish Hour in 1911, critics lambasted the work, going so far as to cry pornography. The young composer was also criticized for a cold aesthetic. For the time, the subtle timbres of the orchestra seemed singular. Celesta, tubular bells, and muted horns are juxtaposed with polyrhythms; as in the prelude where three pendulums set to different tempi create a closed world.