Play

El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show) by Manuel de Falla (1876-1946), a musical and theatrical version of an episode from Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. Commissioned from Falla by the Princess of Polignac in 1919 and premiered in Paris in 1923.

Plot

The puppeteer Maese Pedro shows Don Quixote, Sancho and other guests at a Castilian inn his Retablo de la libertad de Melisendra (The Play of Melisendra's Freedom). In it, Melisendra remains captive of the Moors in the Aljafería castle in Zaragoza.

King Charlemagne urges Gaiferos, Melisendra's husband, to stop playing chess and go out in search of her. The beautiful Melisendra is courted by King Marsilio and by a Moor who will be punished for his audacity.

Gaiferos finds her, rescues her and flees with her on horseback.