La vida breve (opera)

Synopsis#

:Time: 20th century :Place: Granada

Act 1#

Afternoon and sunset in the (gypsy) Albaicín district A male chorus of anvil workers plies their trade at the local forge. The young gypsy, Salud, is passionately in love with a young well-to-do man named Paco. She does not know, and Paco does not tell her, that he is already engaged to a woman of his social class. Her uncle, Sarvaor (Salvador), and her grandmother (La abuela) have discovered this, and they try to prevent Salud from interrupting Paco’s wedding after she learns the truth.

Act 2#

A wealthier part of the city: in front of a house on whose patio wedding festivities are in progress (and visible from the street), and then in the patio itself Confrontation (which from several perspectives is the theme of the whole opera) occurs after Salud and Sarvaor gate-crash the festivities, astonishing the bride and the guests and momentarily throwing the mendacious groom so much off his guard that he utters Salud’s name before denying he knows her and ordering her ejection. Her heart broken, Salud falls dead at his feet, in what is said to be the ultimate gesture of contempt for a former lover.

Recordings#

There are 11 complete recordings, as of February 2012. Cast key is Conductor / Salud, La abuela, Paco, El tío Sarvaor: * Halffter / Victoria de los Ángeles, Rosario Gómez, Pablo Civil, Emilio Payá - His Master’s Voice, 1954 * Toldrà / Victoria de los Ángeles, Rosario Gómez, Bernabé Martí, Joaquín Deus - Ediciones FVdA, 1958, live in Edinburgh * Frühbeck de Burgos / Victoria de los Ángeles, Ines Rivadeneira, Carlo Cossutta, Victor de Narké - EMI, 1965 * García Navarro / Teresa Berganza, Alicia Nafé, José Carreras, Juan Pons - Deutsche Grammophon, 1978 * López Cobos / Alicia Nafé, Catherine Keen, Antonio Ordóñez, Michael Wadsworth - Telarc, 1992 * Mata / Martha Senn, Cecilia Angell, Fernando de la Mora, William Alvarado - Dorian, 1993 * García Navarro / María José Montiel, Alicia Nafé, Giacomo Aragall, Alfonso Echeverría - RTVE (DVD), 1997, live in Madrid * Josep Pons / Inmaculada Egido, Mabel Perelstein, Antonio Ordóñez, Enrique Baquerizo - Harmonia Mundi, 1997 * Frühbeck de Burgos / Maria Rodríguez, Paola Pelliciari, César Hernández, Marcello Lippi - Dynamic, 2001, live in Cagliari * Valdés / Ana María Sánchez, Alicia Nafé, Vicente Ombuena Valls, Alfonso Echeverría - Naxos, 2002, live in Oviedo * Maazel / Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, María Luisa Corbacho, Jorge de León Paco, Felipe Bou - C Major (DVD), 2010, live in Valencia

External links#

• • , performed by Itzhak Perlman and Samuel Sanders