I have delayed writing
this review for some time because, never
having seen the opera, I was hoping
to catch up with a rare UK production
being toured by England’s Opera North.
Unfortunately I had to cancel twice
owing to a persistent cough. If only
some of my fellow concert-goers were
as sensitive. The result is that I missed
the boat, something made particularly
irritating because the performance had
some rave reviews. This is how Anthony
Holden in the Guardian started his review:
"If you’d rather
be boiled in oil than go to the opera,
as one friend of mine confided to another,
here’s a show that might change your
mind: Opera North’s production of La
Vida Breve ….. The music is flamenco-fiery,
the staging vivid enough to give opera
a non-elitist name, and – here’s the
best news – it’s only an hour long."
There are virtues in
brevity other than that of satisfying
short attention spans and opera-phobics.
In the theatre it will nearly always
be done as a double bill so you get
a good money’s worth, and in CD terms
we get an opera on one disc - in this
case at Naxos budget price. Those who
saw the production will wonder why this
powerful work is performed so relatively
rarely outside Spain. And those who
only know their Falla through the popular
orchestral music from Nights in the
Gardens of Spain and The Three-Cornered
Hat will be surprised at the opera’s
musical contrast and gritty drama.
The plot starts the
same as that of the last opera I reviewed,
Pacius’s Die Loreley: caddish
male seduces maiden and vows eternal
love but, unknown to her, he is due
to get married the next day. Maiden
happens to go to wedding where she realises
who is getting married. Then plot diverges.
In Die Loreley, man gets just
desserts and drowns in Rhine. In La
Vida, the grief-stricken girl dies.
I am not sure which
version is more politically correct,
but I fear, life being what it is, that
La Vida Breve is more convincing
in its outcome, and certainly more painful
for the audience.
This Naxos CD is a
very welcome addition to the few recordings
that have been made. Among those still
available is the one headed by Victoria
de los Angeles. This was made in 1966
but is still regarded by many as the
benchmark. Naxos however can compete
with superior recorded sound and an
idiomatic Spanishness ensured by the
fact that all forces – vocal and orchestral,
are indigenous; I stretch a point –
a couple of participants are South-American
born. The singers twiddle Falla’s characteristic
Iberian embellishments in a way that
must be in the blood. Ana Maria Sánchez
carries off the responsibility of the
lead with some aplomb. This is a wide-ranging
role, both dramatically and in terms
of pitch, and she has the voice to cope.
All the other cast acquit themselves
well, and in the important role of the
grandmother, Alicia Nafé brings
a unique experience to the role. The
North Spanish provincial band, the Asturian
Symphony Orchestra, is excellent under
Maximiamo Valdes, a stalwart of the
Spanish orchestral scene.
So if you want to purchase
your only CD of this opera, is this
the one, bearing in mind the bargain
price? Well, if like me you are English
speaking with hopeless Spanish, then
I suggest the answer may be ‘no’. Why?
Because there is no English libretto
supplied. I have friends who say this
does not matter too much if you have
the synopsis. A: I do not agree, and
B: in this case, the synopsis is buried
in the middle of a general article about
the opera. The whole of the first act
is covered in about a hundred words.
If you want to know exactly what the
girl, Salud, and her seducer Paco are
saying to each other in their moving
duet towards the end, then you wouldn’t
have a clue. It is a disgrace that a
disc that is targeting a large English–speaking
market should only provide a Spanish
text. The only use it could serve is
that if you follow it you could work
out which of the characters are singing
at any given moment (but not what they
are singing about).
If you agree with me
then I recommend the classic Victoria
de los Angeles EMI recording, superbly
conducted by Frühbeck de Burgos.
It has an English text so you’ll know
what’s happening. You may only pay a
tiny bit more. The fine version made
by DG under Garcìa Navarro with
Teresa Berganza and a young Jose Carreras,
is, I understand, not currently available.
John Leeman
Prince of Asturias Foundation Choir 
