La Vida Breve

(The Short Life) by Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946).
Lyric drama in two acts. 1905.
Libretto by Fernández Shaw.
First performance at the Municipal Casino, Nice, on 1st April 1913.

CHARACTERS

Salud and Paco are lovers, but he agrees to marry a girl of his own richer class, Carmela. The wedding takes place, observed, from the street, by Salud. Her uncle Sarvaor offers to entertain the wedding-guests and Salud comes forward to accuse Paco, before falling down dead.

De Falla's opera is set in Granada and includes a series of dances that have appeared in a number of arrangements, notably, in the case of the first dance, that for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler. Orchestral excerpts include the prelude and one or more dances.