This justly-famous work was written by Flecha as an entertainment for the Christmas season celebrations at the court of Duke Ferdinand of Calabria. The nature of the work fits the mix of the secular and sacred at Christmastime, providing its own mix of drama, humor, pathos, and religion, complete with a moral at the end. Rather like Banchieri's Barca, this work takes a slice of life and fills it with vivid, often comic characters. In this case, the scene is a shipwreck. It opens with the sailors shouting for a pump (bomba), and the flurry as they realize their ship is going down. Confusion reigns, and the sailors (particularly those who can't swim) pray for help. A ship comes along and rescues them, and they celebrate once safely on board. Broad comedy returns as the voices imitate the tuning of a badly out-of-tune guitar, and then the tone again switches to devout prayers of thanks for their rescue. This work must have been incredibly challenging to write, given all of the different moods that need to be depicted. The more confused scenes had to be dramatically convincing, and yet still comprehensible and musically appealling. The mood switches from line to line, from the pathos of the prayers to the jubilation at being rescued. The piece is no less difficult to perform, demanding characterization and presenting some extremely difficult harmonics. The length of the piece, too, is draining for most singers, but when successfully performed, is a musical tour de force.

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