The Music of El Terrible Toreador (Part 1)
Disney’s second Silly Symphony, the six minute short El Terrible Toreador debuted in September of 1929, just one month after the release of the ground breaking film The Skeleton Dance. It’s a peculiar piece of cinema with a particularly gruesome ending, but it’s still an entertaining watch with some interesting musical moments.
As with The Skeleton Dance, Carl Stalling worked on the film’s music. He had joined the company in 1928 as its first music director. Stalling created the score, blending music penned by composers Georges Bizet, Alberto Pestalozza, and Felix Mendelssohn, as well as the brief use of a classic folk melody. The soundtrack was then recorded in Los Angeles, a change from the first Silly Symphony, whose soundtrack had been recorded in New York.
The film’s story is, at least loosely, inspired by George Bizet’s opera Carmen. That said, it only has the vague hint of a plot. It features a voracious soldier and a bull fighter (whose physical depiction is said to have been inspired by Walt Disney) duking it out over the affections of a woman. There is also a bull fight. Unlike the opera, our female protagonist does not end up dead. The bull is not so lucky. Though he isn’t struck by the sword, as is the tradition in bullfighting, he ends up being pulled completely inside out. It’s a shockingly gory end and serves as the film’s final image.
Motion Picture News reviewed the film stating, “O.K. For Laughs. This is a cartoon burlesque of Carmen in tabloid form. The music of the opera is used for the accompaniment. Filled with laughs, the bull wrestling and throwing which is the final touch is sure to get over. Go to it on this one.” Heaping higher praise on El Terrible Toreador, The Film Daily referred to it as, “almost a continuous riot from start to finish.”
The Composer
Born in 1838 in Paris, France, Bizet was a Romantic composer of middling success until the release of Carmen. That all changed when it was suggested that Bizet work with librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.
Bizet suggested that they create an opera built around the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée (which itself may have been inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s poem “The Gypsies”). Right away, he realized that he had created something special, stating, “They make out that I am obscure, complicated, tedious, more fettered by technical skill than lit by inspiration. Well, this time I have written a work that is full of clarity and vivacity, full of colour and melody.”
Unfortunately, critics hated the piece, referring to it as vulgar, and Bizet died a few months after its debut believing the piece to be a failure. Little did he know that within a few years, the piece would be appearing in almost every opera house of note throughout the continent. To this day, it remains of the most popular and oft performed operas ever written.
Disney Goes to the Opera
The cartoon opens with the melody of “Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre” or the “Toreador Song,” one of the most popular pieces from Bizet’s Carmen. Tunes from the opera are peppered throughout the short, but this seems a fitting introduction with its jaunty, up-tempo praise of the classic opera’s bullfighter. The piece appears again in the cartoon during the introduction of the bullfighter.
As the film moves from its title screen to its opening sequence, a waitress carryies a tray with a stein of beer while the music transitions into “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle,” more commonly known as the “Habanera.” Fans of classic cartoons have likely heard the song countless times, even if they didn’t know it by name.
The common name “Habanera” refers to a popular type of music (also known as the contradanza or country danse) popular in the 18th century. Though it is one of Bizet’s best known pieces, the melody is not actually his. He adopted the tune from the piece “El Arreglito ou la Promesse de mariage” by Spanish composer Sebastián Yradier.
At the time of composition, Bizet believed the melody to be a folk tune, only to later learn that it had been originally published in 1863. Yradier had only died a mere decade before the debut of Carmen. Upon learning this, Bizet added a note to his publication of the vocal score indicating the tunes origins.
Later in the short, we also hear pieces of Carmen’s “Overture,” another recognizable piece that is used to introduce the bullfight in the cartoon.
A Merry Piedmontese Ballad
The next piece of music featured in the short is the Italian song “Ciribiribin.” It is used briefly as our waitress character, Carmencita, begins dancing for the soldier. She hums the song’s melody while hitting herself on the head and posterior with her drink tray. When she’s finished, the soldier bursts out with applause before tossing her a coin.
Originally written in 1898, the song was composed by Alberto Pestalozza with lyrics by Carlo Tiochet. Its original language was Piedmontese from the Piedmont region in Italy. Despite occasionally being mistaken for an Italian dialect, linguists actually consider it a unique language of its own.
Tiochet (born Carlo Alfredo Occhetti) was born January 1, 1863 and moved to Turin (the capital of the Piedmont region). He learned the language and began writing in it. He became so comfortable in it that he jokingly referred to himself as, “Tuscan by mistake.”
He founded a weekly known as “La birichina” while also writing comedies and song lyrics, including collaborations with Alberto Pestalozza.
For his part, Pestalozza was born in Turin in 1851. He studied at the Music Institute of the City of Turin and then began writing musical comedies and operettas.
Both men would be primarily remembered for “Ciribiribin,” which was published by Edizioni musicali Carisch, an Italian music publishing company. The song was an immediate success, particularly due to a performance by Austrian soubrette Mitzi Kirchner.
Over the years, the song has been recorded by Italian artists like Renato Carosone and Mario Lanza, as well as international musicians such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, and many more.
It’s a bit of a curious inclusion in the cartoon, given that the cartoon is ostensibly set in Spain. But two of the remaining musical selections in the piece were even more unusual. In next week’s blog post, we’ll take a look at how a German composer and a centuries old folk tune from Ireland entered the picture as well.
Make Mine Music 