| As the molten evening sun settles over Seville's Plaza | | | | arguably the world's most loved opera; a passionate |
| de Espana the melancholic melody of a guitar | | | | musical reflecting the anguish of Andalucian romance, |
| completes the rapture. Your head swims with delight | | | | pathos and murder. His compatriot Jules Massenet's |
| to Sueno en la Floresta (Dreams in the Magic Garden). | | | | Meditation captivates us all but almost as well known, |
| As T.S Elliot observed: 'Music heard so deeply / That it | | | | his opera El Cid based on Spain's revered military hero. |
| is not heard at all, but you are the music / While the | | | | THOSE SUN BEDS AGAIN |
| music lasts.' | | | | Just as the German-Austrians commandeer our sun |
| Spaniards should stop reading right here for their | | | | beds they are also adept at grabbing the best tunes. |
| shameful secret is out. Get ready to compose | | | | Mozart's Marriage of Figaro was set in Seville; his Don |
| yourself. Their national soul music plucks heartstrings | | | | Giovanni was based on the exploits of Spain's own |
| as it does guitar strings but alarmingly it inspires | | | | Casanova, Don Juan. At any Spanish music |
| non-Spaniards to get their plectrums out and do even | | | | extravaganza Johann Strauss Jnr gets them off their |
| better. Well they do say imitation is the sincerest form | | | | seats and into the foot-tapping aisles with his |
| of flattery. | | | | Spanischer Marsch. |
| IBERIAN ROMANCE | | | | Passionate love and revenge fuel the drama of most |
| This incomparable beautiful evocation of Iberian charm | | | | opera. Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi was inspired |
| was composed by the Paraguayan, Agustin Barrios | | | | by a Spanish play when he created The Force of |
| Mangore, whom John Williams described as the | | | | Destiny. Rossini, another Italian, put northern |
| greatest guitarist of all time. Others might say it is | | | | competitors in their place with his Barber of Seville. |
| equalled by contemporary English composer Richard | | | | PLAYING SECOND FIDDLE? |
| Harvey whose Antico for Guitar frequently tops the | | | | The Russians won't play second fiddle to anyone |
| most requested Spanish dream music. | | | | either. Who can leave the castanets in the drawer |
| Little conjures up the vibrancy of the Spanish spirit than | | | | when the first chords of Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio |
| does Espana, composed by Frenchman Emanuel | | | | Espagnol lift the casa rafters? Then there's fellow |
| Chabrier after his return from a visit to Spain. The | | | | Russian Peter Tchaikovsky with his mesmerising |
| French love affair with their Spanish neighbour gave us | | | | heel-tapping hand-clapping Spanish Dance in the ballet |
| Bolero. Its evocative heat-building rhythm caught the | | | | The Nutcracker. The father of Russian classical music |
| world's imagination when super-star skaters Torvill and | | | | Mikhael Glinka composed the embodiment of Spanish |
| Dean used it underscore their Olympian ice-drama in | | | | musical spirit with his Summer Night in Madrid. |
| 1984. This soft to frenzied musical drama with its | | | | Could it be that without any Spanish intervention there |
| heart-stopping finale was composed by Frenchman | | | | will always be Spanish music to enjoy? Everyone |
| Maurice Ravel. | | | | wants to be Spanish; it is the way it has always been. |
| It was a French composer who created Carmen, | | | | |