Jesús López-Cobos - Falla: La vida breve (1992)

This was Maestro Lopez-Cobos’ first opera for Telarc and Falla’s music is a perfect match for the Spanish conductor.

La vida breve was premiered in Nice in 1913, and subsequently became a huge success at Paris’ Opera-Comique. The Spanish premiere took place shortly thereafter, and helped establish Falla as one of the most important Spanish composers of his generation. Falla teamed up with librettist Carlos Fernandez Shaw, a well-known writer and friend of Falla’s. Shaw moved freely between the literary and musical worlds, having produced a number of librettos for zarzuelas.

In the words of Falla’s biographer Burnett James, “The originality of La vida breve…comes in the profound evocation of poetic atmosphere and in the authenticity of the Andalucian setting…(Its) fierce pride, (its) aristocratic independence of mind and inward passion are characteristic also of Manuel de Falla. Indeed, both in his achievements and his limitations as man and artist, Falla is the most complete representative of the Spanish mind and spirit in music.”