The Three-Cornered Hat
El sombrero de tres picos · Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, 1874
Translated from the Spanish and introduced by Inés Bou
Featured in Asymptote
Andalusia, early nineteenth century. His Worship the Corregidor is the law. At least, so long as he keeps his hat on his head. When the magistrate comes calling at the mill on the road outside the city to pursue the beautiful miller’s wife, neither the authority of his three-cornered hat nor the splendour of his scarlet cloak will protect him from Tía Frasquita’s wit or her husband’s cunning.
Pedro Antonio de Alarcón’s best-known work of Andalusian folk comedy was the inspiration for Manuel de Falla’s 1919 ballet: designed by Picasso, choreographed by Massine, produced by Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes. The ballet is famous. Fewer people know that Falla built it on this short Andalusian comedy.
This edition includes an original introduction by the translator and a full set of historical notes on Alarcón, the Falla ballet, and the Andalusian oral tradition from which the story emerges.