The Three-Cornered Hat (El Sombrero de Tres Picos) | Manuel de Falla

Orchestration
3(1&3=pic).2+ca.2.2/4331/timp.5perc/hp.pf(cel)/str+Mz
Duration35 min

CategoryLarge Orchestra

Composer
Manuel de Falla

Performances
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Programme Note

An honest miller is happily married to a good wife. The elderly local governor, who wears a three-cornered hat, uses his power falsely to arrest the miller and keep him away from home, so that he himself can pursue the miller’s wife. Having escaped and finding the governor in bed, the miller at first contemplates murder, but decides on a neater revenge. He swaps clothes with his persecutor and visits the governor’s wife.The governor, now in the miller’s clothes, is re-arrested. A crowd gathers, the miller reappears, is reunited with his wife and the governor is mocked.