As the sun settles over Seville’s Plaza de Espana the mournful melody of a guitar completes the rapture. Your head swims with delight to Sueno en la Floresta.

The incomparable beautiful evocation of Iberian charm was composed by Paraguayan, Agustin Barrios Mangore, who John Williams described as the greatest guitarist of all time.

Others might say it is equalled by contemporary English composer Richard Harvey whose Antico for Guitar frequently tops the most requested Spanish dream music.

Get ready to compose yourself. Spain inspires non-Spaniards to get their plectrums out and they often do even better. Well, they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Little conjures up the vibrancy of the Spanish spirit than does Espana. The delightful composition was that of Frenchman Emanuel Chabrier after his return from a visit to Spain.

The French love affair with their Spanish neighbour gave us Bolero. Its evocative heat-building rhythm caught the world’s imagination when skaters Torvill and Dean used it to underscore their Olympian ice drama in 1984. This soft to frenzied musical drama with its heart-stopping finale was composed by Maurice Ravel.

The same French composer created Carmen said to be the world’s most loved opera. The opera’s ballads reflect the anguish of Andalucía romance, pathos and murder.  

Bizet’s compatriot Jules Massenet’s Meditation captivates us all as does the lesser-known opera El Cid which is based on Spain’s revered military hero.

Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro was set in Seville; his Don Giovanni was based on the exploits of Spain’s own Casanova, Don Juan. At any Spanish music extravaganza, Johann Strauss Jnr gets them off their seats and into the foot-tapping aisles with his Spanischer Marsch.

Passionate love and revenge fuel the drama of most operas. Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi was inspired by a Spanish play when he created The Force of Destiny. Gioachino Rossini, another Italian, put northern competitors in their place with his Barber of Seville.

The Russians never play second fiddle to anyone either. Who can leave the castanets in the drawer when the first chords of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol lift the casa rafters?

Then there’s fellow Russian Peter Tchaikovsky with his mesmerising heel-tapping hand-clapping Spanish Dance in the ballet Swan Lake. The father of Russian classical music Mikhail Glinka composed the embodiment of Spanish musical spirit with his Summer Night in Madrid.

Could it be that without any Spanish intervention, there will always be Spanish music to enjoy? Everyone wants to be Spanish; it is the way it has always been.

‘Music heard so deeply / that it is not heard at all, but you are the music / While the music lasts.’ ~ As T. S Elliot. STORY MICHAEL WALSH.

THE DOVETAILS HOTEL A charming romantic and risqué comedy that dares to discover the taboo pleasures of a ménage a trois relationship. Michael Walsh award-winning novelist amusingly reveals the amorous love lives of Gareth and his two attractive lady friends who are happy to share more than just friendship with the debonair novelist.  CLICK LINK TO BOOK  https://tinyurl.com/t4bfj754

THE ENIGMA OF TIFFANY Michael Walsh Award-Winning Writer. The elegant and glamorous Tiffany is a rich widow with a shady and shocking past when she meets Gareth, Leonara and Felicity holidaying on the Spanish Riviera. But who is Tiffany and Pegasus her gay partner? A romantic comedy with an ending that has you reaching for your Kleenex.   A reader writes, ‘I thoroughly enjoyed it.’ There is girl talk, excitement, revelations, dilemmas, compromises, romance, and at times pathos. LINK TO BOOK    https://tinyurl.com/52nmpnjz