Noche de Fuego

Mägo de Oz (Spanish for Wizard of Oz, with a metal umlaut) is a Spanish folk/heavy metal band from Begoña, Madrid formed in mid-1988 by drummer Txus di Fellatio. The band became well known for the strong Celtic feel to their music strengthened through their consistent usage of a violinist and flautist. The name for the band was chosen, according to founding member Txus, because "life is a yellow brick road, on which we walk in the company of others searching for our dreams."

The two splendid works on this album resulted from Manuel de Falla's encounter with the husband-and-wife team of dramatists Martínez Sierra-Lejárraga: Love the Magician, whose eminently ‘gypsy’ inspiration takes us to the very heart of the flamenco repertory, here magnificently embodied under the direction of maestro Pablo Heras-Casado; and the brilliant pantomime The Three-cornered Hat, for which Picasso designed the sets and costumes – exactly 100 years ago!

Works of Manuel de Falla - widely regarded as the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early twentieth century - are strongly influenced by Spanish folk music in which the guitar is central. Although he composed only one piece for that instrument his inspiration was flamenco and early Spanish music, including the guitar works of Gaspar Sanz. The guitar also features in Falla‘s first great success, the opera ‘La Vida Breve’. For this recording, we have selected and transcribed works in which the influence of the guitar was dominant thus translating these pieces back to their original source of inspiration.