L'heure espagnole is a French one-act opera from 1911, described as a comédie musicale, with music by Maurice Ravel to a French libretto by Franc-Nohain, based on Franc-Nohain's 1904 play ('comédie-bouffe') of the same name[1][2] The opera, set in Spain in the 18th century, is about a clockmaker whose unfaithful wife attempts to make love to several different men while he is away, leading to them hiding in, and eventually getting stuck in, her husband's clocks.

[4] Ravel was closely involved in every aspect of the production as it was prepared for its premiere by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart in Paris.

[4] Outside France, L’heure espagnole was first seen at Covent Garden in 1919, Chicago and New York in 1920, Brussels in 1921, followed by Basel and Rotterdam (1923), Prague (1924), Hamburg, Stockholm (1925), reaching Buenos Aires in 1932 and Cairo in 1934.

Apart from [Gonzalve] who sings sérénades and cavatines with deliberately exaggerated melodies, the other rôles will give, I think, the impression of being spoken."

Ravel also cited Mussorgsky's The Marriage for the effect he was aiming to achieve in the word setting, and underlined the Spanish elements of the score in his use of jotas, habaneras and malagueñas.

[9] Kobbé commented that from "the delightful clock noises of the opening to the Habanera quintet of the end, L'Heure Espagnole is full of charming music",[10] while Grove notes that the opera is one of a group of Spanish influenced works that span Ravel’s career and that in it he employed "a virtuouso use of the modern orchestra".

Torquemada is at work in his shop when the muleteer Ramiro stops by to have his watch fixed, so that he can fulfill his duties at collecting the town's post.

The opera ends with a quintet finale, as the singers step out of character to intone the moral of the tale, paraphrasing Boccaccio: "Among all lovers, only the efficient succeed, The moment arrives, in the pursuit of love, When the muleteer has his turn!"

Ravel dedicated L'heure espagnole to Louise Cruppi,[14] whose son he would later commemorate with one of the movements of Le Tombeau de Couperin .