La vida breve

• Salud (soprano )
• La Abuela, grandmother Saluds (mezzo- soprano)
• Carmela, Paco's bride (mezzo- soprano)
• Paco (Tenor)
• Sarvaor, Saluds great uncle (baritone or bass)
• El flamenco singer, flamenco singer (baritone )
• Manuel, Carmela's brother (baritone )
• Voice of a blacksmith (Tenor)
• Voice of a seller (Tenor)
• Voice from the distance (Tenor)
• Four saleswomen ( soprano and alto )
• Choir

The opera La vida breve ( The Short Life ) is a lyrical drama in two acts and four scenes by Manuel de Falla, with a libretto by Carlos Fernández- Shaw. The premiere took place in 1913 at the Casino Municipal to Nice in French instead. De Falla used in its veristic and impressionistic opera influenced many elements from the Spanish folklore, such as the Cante Jondo with rhythmic ostinatos, as well as flamenco. The choir operates mostly in the background and serves to underscore moods. Only in the second act, he is also actors. With this opera de Falla has found his own musical language.

La vida breve is considered the " most Spanish of all operas ".

Content

Act I

Scene of the opera is the gypsy quarter in the Albaicin of Granada.

Salud, who comes from a poor Gitano family, lives with her ​​grandmother and her great uncle Sarvaor near a forge and a market. After a brief orchestral introduction to sound forge hammers and songs, including a lament that runs like a leitmotif through the opera.

" Malaya el hombre ... Malhaya quien nace yunque, en vez de nacer martillo. "

" Unhappy the man who is born to a dark fate. Unhappy, who is determined to anvil, instead of the hammer. "

Salud desperately awaits her fiancé Paco, a young man from the upper class. The grandmother tries to comfort Salud, and warns her that too much love is dangerous. Salud laments her lot

"La vida del pobre que vive sufriendo debe ser mu corta. "

" The life of the poor, who lives in suffering, will be very short. "

As Paco finally arrives, he assures Salud again his love and faithfulness. Meanwhile comes Saluds great uncle Sarvaor back applied. He tells the grandmother that Paco Salud cheating and the next day wants to marry a rich girl of his class. Sarvaor plans to kill Paco, what keeps him the grandmother. Paco leaves the house and escapes unharmed.

The second image is an orchestral interlude with chorus under the title Intermezzo Granada, where according to the stage directions, the Panorama of Granada from Sacro Monte is shown. This interlude is a mood. The evening comes, and the night falls. The interlude is accompanied by interlocking voices of individual voices and choirs, with action call, girl laughing, working sounds and voices from the market. The interlude leads into a folkloric Spanish dance with castanets, the beginning of Act 2, over. This dance is one of the most famous pieces de Falla and is often brought in concert.

Second Act

Scene of the second act is a house in which Paco just keeps wedding with Carmela. After a Spanish dance wearing a singer before the guests Andalusian " Soleares " with guitar accompaniment before. During the subsequent dance Salud occurs. She has since learned of Pacos disloyalty and looks through the window. In a desperate scene, she laments her suffering and wants to die. Sarvaor and the grandmother added, trying in vain to comfort Salud and curse Paco. Salud sings another window and the song from the forge.

" [ ... ] Malhaya quien nace yunque, en vez de nacer martillo. "

Paco, who has heard Saluds voice, is restless. Salud has only the desire to come into the house to ask for Paco speech.

An Intermezzo and another dance lead the second scene, the finale of the opera, a. Manuel, Carmela's brother congratulates Paco and Carmela. At this moment Salud and Sarvaor enter the courtyard of the house and Sarvaor is recognized by its guests as " Gitano ". Then claiming Sarvaor, dancing and want to sing along with Salud front of the guests, and Manuel mocked him. Salud pulls away and accuses Paco. As Paco denies everything, Salud sinks to the ground and dies. The grandmother complained Saluds death and referred to as Paco infamous traitor. The opera ends with the exclamation of grandmother and Sarvaors: " Judas"

Formation

In 1904 the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid wrote in a competition for one-act operas. The then 28 -year-old de Falla began immediately at the suggestion of his teacher Felip Pedrellian to compose a two-act opera with a libretto actually his friend Carlos Fernández- Shaw, a successful zarzuela librettists. Although the opera La vida breve won in 1905 the first prize, but the Spanish premiere took place only on November 14, 1914 at the Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid, after the work had been performed in Nice and Paris.

Discography ( the complete recordings )

• Capilla Clasica Polifonica, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona under Ernesto Halffter Escriche with Victoria de los Ángeles and Pablo Civil, EMI, 1952.
• Choir Orfeón donostiarra, Orquesta Nacional de España under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, with Victoria de los Ángeles and Carlos Cossuta, EMI 1966.
• Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra under Garcia Navarro with Teresa Berganza and José Carreras, DG 1978.

Recent recordings

• Cincinnati SO under Jesús López Cobos Telarc 1990.
• Orchestra Ciudad de Granada, Josep Pons, harmonia mundi 1998.
• Orchestra Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, 2002
• Asturias SO, Maximiano Valdés Naxos 2004