One of the first compositions I am working with is the hauntingly beautiful piece, Ritual Fire Dance, a movement of the ballet ‘El Amor Brujo’ or The Bewitched Love.
In de Falla's ballet a young Andalusian gipsy girl called Candela is haunted by the ghost of her husband. Each night he appears to her, and they dance till dawn. Candela bewitched, remains captive to him, filled with fervent longing and unable to love again. Then amid her inconsolable grief, she realises she was never truly her husband's first love.
So, to help Candela be rid of him, all the gipsy women encircle the campfire at midnight to perform a ritual fire dance. The ghost appears and in an amorous frenzy of passion, dances with Candela.
They whirl faster and faster around the fire, and in a climactic moment, as Candela is about to be drawn into the fire with her husband’s ghost, his first love appears at the fireside. She is tricked to take Candela’s place in the dance and vanishes with the ghost forever.
The husband’s hold on Candela is broken and she is free to live in peace and to love again.
This music, with its story, rich in symbolism, pathos and passion, is the subject for one of the first paintings I will be starting for Evoking the Elements.
Thus far, I have a board sitting on my easel. I am both excited and daunted - waiting for the imagery to crystalise in my mind’s eye, before putting brush to canvas. Perhaps I too should light a huge fire and dance to its flickering flames for inspiration?