Aug 31, 2026
— 4:00 PM
Manuel de Falla, an Andalusian musician with a French touch
Festival
Artists
Program
Lecture by Katia-Sofía Hakim
From his childhood bedroom in Cádiz, the young Manuel de Falla dreamed of France. He carved his name with scissors into the spine of a French-Spanish bilingual dictionary, just as one might carve a name into the bark of a tree. With great elegance, Manuel would write out imaginary gourmet menus for his friends, offering them ‘glazed ham’, ‘champagne’ and ‘fried rice pudding’. He imagined himself at the 1889 World’s Fair and published a review of it in El Burlón, a magazine he invented as a teenager. This love for and mastery of the French language would enable him to communicate with countless French-speaking artistic figures of his time.
It was not until 1907 that Manuel de Falla’s train arrived at Orsay station. In the cosmopolitan Paris of the early 20th century, the composer’s solitary work was offset by his frequent visits to theatres and concert halls, as well as by his rich exchanges with contemporaries such as Maurice Ravel, Paul Dukas, Claude and Emma Debussy, and Igor Stravinsky, to name but a few. It was in Paris that the Four Spanish Pieces, the Three Melodies, the Seven Spanish Folk Songs, and Nights in the Gardens of Spain were composed.
Paradoxically, it was France that made Falla aware of his Iberian roots. Being viewed through the eyes of outsiders enabled him to forge an original musical identity, to rediscover Spanish music and to contribute to its wider influence. Today, Manuel de Falla is an iconic figure of 20th-century Western music. The year 2026 marks the 150th anniversary of his birth, inviting us to reflect on his artistic legacy through cultural exchanges between France and Spain.
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Length of the concert: 1h
Rate E – Conference included in the Manuel de Falla Pass
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About this lecture – on France Musique
Manuel de Falla : 9 (petites) choses à savoir sur le compositeur d’El Amor Brujo
Une heure, un compositeur : Manuel de Falla