addition to the score to give Massine a dance of stiff-backed masculine pride. No sooner is this finished than the Corregidor's guards appear to arrest him (Falla quotes the 'Fate' motif from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony) and, while the Wife is left to wonder what that fate might be, che singer is heard again with another warning, this time with a mocking cuckoo-call motif
Por la noche canta el cuco
advertiendo a los casados
que corran bien los cerrojos,
que el diablo est~ desvelado!
At night the cuckoo sings
warning married couples
to keep their locks well oiled
because the devil is awake!
With the Miller out of the way, the Corregidor tries once more, a stealthy bassoon leading to a dance suggesting his elderly, stiff-jointed gallantry. He now falls into the mill-stream in his eagerness, and has to put on the Miller's clothes while his own are spread to dry. These are seen by the Miller, who has escaped from custody and, to take revenge for what he suspects to be the worst for his wife, he puts on theCorregidor's clothes. The pursuing guards return and arrest the wrong man. The confusion is eventually resolved, and theMiller and his Wife celebrate with their friends as the tune hinted at since the beginning flowers into a final exuberant jota.
The ballet has remained more or less theatrically intact, recently in the repertory of Birmingham Royal Ballet and elsewhere, while the music quickly joined that select group of works composed for dancing which are no less successful in concerr form, whether the listener has scen the ballet or not.
(C) Nobl Goodwin (English translation of Spanish text by VVilliam Mana (C))
Akemi Sakamoto
Akemi Sakamoto graduated from Tokyo State University of Arts in 1986 and achieved a Master in opera singing later that same year. In 1988 she made her debut in Tokyo as Vitella in Mozart's Ld clemenza di Tito. In 1990 she won the Labordtorio per giovdni cantauti lirici competition and took the role of Isabella in Rossini's L'Itdiand i,e A!geri in performances in Lecco, Italy. 1991 saw further competition triumphs, culminating in flrst prize at the Bellini Competition and a subsequent solo recital, as well as singing the role of Dorabella in Cosifun tutte in a production directed by Peter Maag in Italy. She took the same role the following year in Messina, as well as performing the protagonist's role in Franco Battiato's Gi/gamesh at the Rome Opera which was also recorded on CD and video for EMI. That October she won the Francisco Vinas competition in Barcelona, gaining the special prize for her interpretation in the role of Suzuki (Madama Butterfly).
During '93 Akemi Sakamoto was soloist in several performances in Italy of Battiato's MesJa Arcaicd, also televised and recorded on CD and video, and during the summer of '94 she sang Azucena (Il Trovatore) in Milan. Bergamo and Tokyo, and Fenena (Nabucco) at the Ztirich Tonhalle.
Last year she gave a critically acclaimed solo recital in Tokyo of Italian operatic arias and chamber music, performed in Rossini's Il barbiere di Sjvig/ia under Seiji Ozawa in Japan and was a soloist in Verdi's Requlem in Yokohama, as well as giving further performances of the Messa Arcaica in Pisa (Italy).
