L'Heure Espagnole (The Spanish Hour), M. 52 [Alf:36-W110991]

In 1907, Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) began to compose his one-act theatrical piece, L'HEURE ESPAGNOLE (The Spanish Hour), after his opera-loving father suffered a stroke. It has been suggested that this troubling event inspired him to take his first foray into opera. Maurice ‰tienne Legrand, under the pseudonym Franc-Nohain, penned the libretto, which was based on his 1904 play of the same name. The plot follows the wife of a clockmaker who tries to seduced several men in his absence, causing them to entrap themselves in her husband's clocks. Dedicated to Louise Cruppi, it premiered in a double billing with Jules Massenet's Thİr¨se on May 19, 1911 at the Opera-Comique in Paris.