Cross-cultural identities : an interdisciplinary analysis of the jota in The Three-Cornered Hat (1919)

Abstract

This study proposes that the inclusion of the Aragonese jota (a type of folk dance) in The Three-Cornered Hat contributed to interwar transnational modernism. The modern ballet, which opened at the Alhambra Theatre in 1919, featured choreography by Léonide Massine, music by Manuel de Falla, libretto by María Lejárraga, and designs by Pablo Picasso. The jota amplified theories of Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, who identified cross-cultural exchange as a tool to strengthen a shared identity across the European continent, as well as theories of Gesamtkunstwerk put forward by Richard Wagner, who greatly influenced Falla.