Ravel’s father was a successful engineer who invented a machine for making paper bags, patented a design for a steam-driven automobile and worked as a technical advisor on Gustave Eiffel’s railway projects. As a child, Ravel was fascinated by his father’s mechanical inventions and we see this immediately in L’heure espagnole as it opens with a series of chords set against three metronomes, timed at 40, 100 and 232 beats per minute so that they coincide every 15 seconds. You’ll see a lot of clocks in our presentation of the opera!
ERSO 