On August 30, the 31st Pažaislis Music Festival will invite listeners to its closing concert. In the monastery courtyard, which radiates a special aura, Spanish composer Manuel de Falla’s opera “La Vida Breve” will be performed for the first time in Lithuania. The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra and the Kaunas State Choir will perform this original and memorable work, with soloists Adriana González (soprano) from Guatemala and audience favorite Edgaras Montvidas (tenor) in the leading roles, Gintaras Rinkevičius will conduct.
“La Vida Breve” is a two-act, four-scene opera based on a libretto by Carlos Fernández-Shaw. The opera is set in Granada and sung in authentic Andalusian dialect. Although the opera was written in 1905, it was not premiered until 1913 in Nice. The entire plot of the opera can be summed up in one sentence: a young gypsy girl, Salud, abandoned by her lover Paco, comes to his wedding with his wealthy bride, Carmela, accuses him of infidelity, and then falls down dead. This simple plot is conveyed with realistic force in M. de Falla’s music: the worlds of the poor and the rich are contrasted in the musical dramaturgy. The music, imbued with Spanish and gypsy folklore, never becomes melodramatic, but accurately recreates the experiences of the characters. Nowadays, this opera, which lasts barely an hour, is rarely performed, although its importance in the context of Spanish opera is universally recognized. In fact, the opera is unusual in that the ratio of vocal to instrumental music is almost equal in terms of duration: the second scene of the first act is a short symphonic poem depicting sunset in Granada; the first scene of the second act is an instrumental dance, and so on. The role of Salud carries the greatest weight in the opera. This role has been named one of their favorites by such stars of the opera world as soprano Victoria de los Ángeles and mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza, and the star of the closing concert of the 31st Pažaislis Music Festival will be A. González, deservedly called by critics “one of the most amazing young singers of the younger generation.”