| El retablo de maese Pedro | |
|---|---|
| Puppet-opera by Manuel de Falla | |
 Don Quixote watching Master Peter's puppet show, an illustration by Gustave Doré from Don Quixote, chapter 26, the scene which inspired the work | |
| Translation | Master Peter's Puppet Show |
| Language | Spanish |
| Based on | Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes |
| Premiere | 25 June 1923 Salon of Edmond de Polignac, Paris |
El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show) is a puppet-opera in one act with a prologue and epilogue, composed by Manuel de Falla to a Spanish libretto based on an episode from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The libretto is an abbreviation of chapter 26 of the second part of Don Quixote, with some lines added from other parts of the work. Falla composed this opera "in devoted homage to the glory of Miguel de Cervantes" and dedicated it to the Princess de Polignac, who commissioned the work. Because of its brief length by operatic standards (about 27 minutes), its very challenging part for a boy opera performer (who has by far the most lines), and its use of puppets, it is not part of the standard operatic repertoire.
Otto Mayer-Serra has described this opera as a work where Falla reached beyond "Andalusianism" for his immediate musical influence and colour and began the transition into the "Hispanic neo-classicism" of his later works.[1]
- ^ Mayer-Serra, Otto (January 1943). "Falla's Musical Nationalism". The Musical Quarterly. XXIX (1): 1–17. doi:10.1093/mq/XXIX.1.1.