Maurice Ravel - L’heure espagnole (1911) (English subtitles)

Composer: Joseph Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937) Torquemada, a clockmaker: Luca Lombardo, tenor Concepcion, Torquemada’s wife: Isabelle Druet, mezzo-soprano Gonzalve, a poet: Frédéric Antoun, tenor Ramiro, a muleteer: Marc Barrard, baritone Don Iñigo Gomez, a banker: Nicolas Courjal, bass Orchestra: Orchestre National de Lyon conducted by Leonard Slatkin (There are English subtitles!) 00:00 Introduction - Torquemada’s clock shop 02:27 I - Ramiro has come to have his watch fixed. 04:26 II - Concepcion reminds Torquemada he must go fix the government clocks. She also requests a clock for her room, but Torquemada says they are too heavy. 06:27 III - Torquemada has left, but leaves behind Ramiro, ruining Concepcion’s plans. She busies him by having him move one of the clocks to her room. 08:48 IV - Gonzalve comes and “serenades“ her with his poems. She is impatient to hide him from Ramiro. 11:53 V - Ramiro returns after moving the clock. Concepcion sends him back to get the clock again. Gonzalve continues to serenade Concepcion. 13:28 VI - Concepcion has Gonzalve hide inside a clock, planning to have Ramiro unknowingly carry him into her room. 15:07 VII - Inigo comes, having had placed Torquemada in charge of the government clocks, hoping to seduce Concepcion 17:02 VIII - Ramiro returns with the clock. She has him bring the clock with Gonzalve to her room, and leaves with him. 18:27 IX - Inigo thinks he has been rejected. He hopes to win her by acting silly: he hides in a clock and makes cuckoo sounds. 20:31 X - Ramiro returns. He is taken with Concepcion because she gives him work. 22:35 XI - Concepcion returns, seemingly distraught that the clock is broken, and has Ramiro bring it back again. 23:11 XII - Inigo tries to delight Concepcion with cuckoos. She pleads for him to just leave, but he is stuck... 26:18 XIII - Ramiro returns with the clock with Gonzalve inside. Concepcion sends him back to her room carrying the clock with Inigo inside, which Inigo interprets as success... 27:18 XIV - Concepcion asks Gonzalve to stop with his poems and leave, but he instead poetically romances about his clock-prison and stays. Concepcion leaves, frustrated. 28:54 XV - Gonzalve sings of the delights of his imprisonment, likening it to a nymph’s. 30:26 XVI - Ramiro returns and sings again of Concepcion’s charms. He muses being a clockmaker. Concepcion returns and sends him to fetch the clock again. 33:18 XVII - Concepcion bemoans who she has for lovers. She angrily pounds on the clock, with Gonzalve still in it. 36:15 XVIII - Ramiro returns with the clock with Inigo inside. She asks him to go back to her room ...without a clock... and leaves with him. 37:44 XIX - Inigo is still stuck and laments his physical and emotional situation. Gonzalve bids farewell to his prison, but quickly reenters as Torquemada returns. 41:27 XX - Torquemada nevertheless spots the two, and “sells“ them the clocks they are hiding in. 43:09 Inigo asks to be pulled out. Torquemada, Gonzalve, and Concepcion all fail before Ramiro easily pulls him out. Concepcion says Ramiro is as “regular as a chronometer“, so Torquemada has Ramiro be the clock for Concepcion’s room. 44:45 Ritournelle - The moral of Boccaccio: “the muleteer has his turn“ Translation adapted from translation found in booklet of Testament release How I make my videos: Program I develop for this channel: