Act One

The opera opens at the home of Salud, a gypsy girl who lives with her extended family in the gypsy quarter of Granada. Salud's grandmother attends to her cage of birds, fussing over one that is ill. It makes her think of her granddaughter, who is sick to death with love. Vendors in the street below sing of their wares, and groups of Spanish girls stroll by, giggling and talking. Salud enters, and sounds from the forge of blacksmiths next door are heard. As they work they sing of those born to misfortune, and Salud rages against her faithless lover, who is ever absent. She begs her grandmother to go and watch for him, for he is late and was expected some time ago. The chorus of blacksmiths continues to sing, and Salud sings the aria "Vivan los que rien!" (Long live those that laugh).

The grandmother finally returns with the news that Paco, the lover, has arrived. He and Salud have a touching love scene in which he promises fidelity. While the two lovers talk, Salud's Uncle Sarvaor comes in and tells the grandmother that Paco is lying to Salud. He is to be married the very next day to a wealthy girl and will abandon her. The grandmother convinces him to say nothing, and they both steal from the room.

A symphonic interlude paints a beautiful picture of Granada at dusk. The city is seen from the heights of Sacro Monte. Birds sing from the branches of the orange and pomegranate trees. Scenes of the waterways and sounds of Spanish dance music merge in an exotic urban portrait. As dark comes, the voices of the people singing and chatting die away into silence.

Act Two

We are in the midst of the wedding celebrations of Paco and Carmela. The setting is the home of Carmela and her brother Manuel. Friends and family of bride and groom fill the garden walks and join in the celebrations. Flamenco guitar rhythms and dance music entertain the guests.

Salud, followed by her grandmother and uncle, sneaks into the grounds behinds the celebrations. Bitter and dejected, she longs to see her faithless Paco one last time. Spying him through a window crevice, she sings to him of how she has died of unhappiness and is no more.

Paco stiffens and turns pale at the sound of Salud's voice. Salud and her uncle enter the courtyard and confront him, in front of all of the wedding guests. At first Paco calls out her name, but when she denounces him, telling those gathered that her very room still echoes with his recent words of love, he tells them that she is lying. He yells to the servants to throw her out of the celebrations. She cannot believe her ears. She takes one step forward, murmurs his name with tender love, then veers unsteadily on her feet and collapses in death. The grandmother and uncle curse Paco as the curtain falls.

© All Music Guide

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The charming, colorful, soulful, imaginative, elegantly crafted Spanish Dance is from Manuel de Falla's dramatic work La Vida breve. Inspired by a tragic love story, La Vida breve uses a wealth of musical symbolism and imagery to develop the tragic motif of the woman abandoned by her lover for someone more desirable. Preceded by a brooding Interlude in the strings that effectively juxtaposes melancholy utterances with tantalizingly fragmented anticipations of the dance motif, the Spanish Dance literally rises, Phoenix-like, from its troubling context. De Falla masterfully weaves a kaleidoscopic tapestry with his characteristic dance motif in a charming, sincere, spontaneous theme that continues repeating itself, almost hypnotically engaging the listener. But this is one of those truly magical themes to be heard again and again: in de Falla's Spanish Dance, there is not a trace of the morbid obsessiveness of Ravel's Bolero, where the theme keeps returning, like it or not. No, the theme of the Spanish Dance is like a jewel, a tiny crystal that keeps delighting with ever new reflections. As the theme moves in various forms through the orchestra, first enunciated by the violins, then expressed in a slightly muted form by the woodwinds, it also tames all of the echoes of the melancholy Interlude brought to the fore by the strings, eventually bringing the music to a resplendent, scintillant, climactic close. Needless to say, this dance has inspired many arrangers.

© All Music Guide

###

The charming, colorful, soulful, imaginative, elegantly crafted Spanish Dance is from Manuel de Falla's dramatic work La Vida breve. Inspired by a tragic love story, La Vida breve uses a wealth of musical symbolism and imagery to develop the tragic motif of the woman abandoned by her lover for someone more desirable. Preceded by a brooding Interlude in the strings that effectively juxtaposes melancholy utterances with tantalizingly fragmented anticipations of the dance motif, the Spanish Dance literally rises, Phoenix-like, from its troubling context. De Falla masterfully weaves a kaleidoscopic tapestry with his characteristic dance motif in a charming, sincere, spontaneous theme that continues repeating itself, almost hypnotically engaging the listener. But this is one of those truly magical themes to be heard again and again: in de Falla's Spanish Dance, there is not a trace of the morbid obsessiveness of Ravel's Bolero, where the theme keeps returning, like it or not. No, the theme of the Spanish Dance is like a jewel, a tiny crystal that keeps delighting with ever new reflections. As the theme moves in various forms through the orchestra, first enunciated by the violins, then expressed in a slightly muted form by the woodwinds, it also tames all of the echoes of the melancholy Interlude brought to the fore by the strings, eventually bringing the music to a resplendent, scintillant, climactic close. Needless to say, this dance has inspired many arrangers.

© All Music Guide

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