The Three-Cornered Hat

El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat or Le tricorne) is a ballet choreographed by Léonide Massine to music by Manuel de Falla, commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev and premiered complete in 1919. It is not only a ballet with Spanish setting but one that also employs the techniques of Spanish dance (adapted and somewhat simplified) instead of classical ballet.

The story – a magistrate infatuated with a miller's faithful wife attempts to seduce her – derives from the novella by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (born in Granada) and has been traced in film several times, usually in Spanish. The music has these sections:

Act I

Act II

During World War I Manuel de Falla wrote a pantomime ballet in two scenes and called it The Magistrate and the Miller's Wife (El corregidor y la molinera). The work was scored for a small chamber orchestra and was performed in 1917.

Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes, saw the premiere of El corregidor y la molinera and commissioned Falla to rewrite it. The outcome was a two-act ballet scored for large orchestra called The Three-Cornered Hat (El sombrero de tres picos). This was first performed in London at the Alhambra Theatre on 22 July 1919. Sets and costumes were created by Pablo Picasso. Choreography was by Léonide Massine. Diaghilev asked Falla to conduct the premiere but the composer felt he was not experienced enough to conduct a work so complex and he handed the baton to Ernest Ansermet after one rehearsal.

After a short fanfare the curtain rises revealing a mill in Andalusia. The miller is trying to teach a pet blackbird to tell the time. He tells the bird to chirp twice, but instead it chirps three times. Annoyed, the miller scolds the bird and tells it to try again. The bird now chirps four times. The miller gets angry at the bird again and his wife offers it a grape. The bird takes the grape and chirps twice. The miller and his wife laugh over this and continue their work.

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