Manuel da Falla, La vida breve (1904)

AT LONG LAST, A SPANISH OPERA! When you ask, hey, why isn't there more of a Spanish opera tradition, the answer you generally get is, oh, they have zarzuela instead, which is the Spanish music-drama that's existed since the seventeenth century. How is that different from opera? you ask. Because it consists of a mixture of spoken dialogue and music, say they. How is that different from singspiel, which is definitely opera? ask you. Then they get bored and wander off. Well, we'll see. Frankly, I'm not wholly convinced that they're not just using this "zarzuela" nomenclature so they can feel special, but at some point in the future I shall see a zarzuela, and then I shall pass final judgment. I know that'll be a big relief for everyone, to have that sorted out. But in the meantime, this is definitely an opera. There is no spoken dialogue to be seen.

It's a short (eighty-odd minute) work with a pretty basic operatic plot: Salud is a poor girl who desperately misses her lover, Paco, until he comes back. But then it comes to light that he's marrying a rich girl the next day; Salud sees the wedding dances taking place. Her uncle and grandmother intervene, the latter with the idea of killing Paco, but Salud dies, of some mixture of a broken heart and stabbing herself (I kinda wished Uncle Sarvaor had gone in for the kill on Paco, but no such luck). That is all.

I'll give it to you straight: this opera kicks all kinds of ass. It's super-passionate; whatever stereotypes you may be harboring about Spaniards being hot-blooded, this will do nothing to dispel them. Salud's suffering is the kind of heightened emotion that--for my money--nothing conveys better than opera (and Cristina Gallardo-Domâs really kills it in the role). The music is a mixture of sweeping romanticism and gypsy/folk and flamenco rhythms, and it's very thrilling. There's more dance here than you find in most operas outside the French baroque, and that is one hundred percent fine with me. I would gladly watch a whole lot more of it.

My first experience with Spanish opera could hardly have gone better. Well done, everyone! Whatever zarzuela is, if it produces works I like as much as this, I will be highly impressed.