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When the Fire Burns: The Life and Music of Manuel de Falla
Dir.: Larry Weinstein | 82 minutes

When the Fire Burns: The Life and Music of Manuel de Falla

Canada 1991 | 82 minutes | Spanish, English | Hebrew subtitles

Including excerpts from performances by the conductor Charles Dutoit and the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, Teresa Berganza, Alicia de Larrocha, Narciso Yepes, Nicanor Zabaleta, and gypsy flamenco singers and dancers.

1915 in the Alhambra, Manuel de Falla let out a cry of delight when he finally opened his eyes. His close friend Maria Martinez Sierra had taken his hand and led him to the fairy-tale Moorish palace outside Granada. The composer was overwhelmed: So this was the place he had evoked and conjured up musically some years early without ever having seen it for himself in his very famous composition Nights in the Garden of Spain.

Filmed throughout Spain and Argentina, this musical documentary portrait captures the rich sensuality of Manuel de Falla’s music, in counter-point to the near monastic austerity of his life.