TEN YEARS OF LA VIDA BREVE
[…] the Albaicín, as far as I recall, is a outlying district of the city, and is definitely on a hill […] As for street-cries, I can hardly remember any. The fountain you mention is the [Fuente] del Avellano; but I don’t think its water is sold by people shouting in the street […]. What you do hear them shouting is “Water from the wells of the Alhambra!” in a tone of voice that’s nearly devotional, and with an accent that’s a bit like a Cuban one […]12[12] Handwritten letter from Antonio Arango to Manuel de Falla, dated 8 September 1904 [no place of provenance stated]. A.M.F. (correspondence folder 6710)..
Even though it won first prize from the Academia de Bellas Artes in Madrid, attempts to have La vida breve performed proved fruitless. This, as well as the natural attraction that a musician like Falla must have felt towards Paris, encouraged him to travel to the French capital in 1907, where he was to stay until the beginning of the First World War in 1914. Years later, Falla wrote to his friend, the painter Ignacio Zuloaga:[…] as far as my job is concerned, my hometown is Paris. If I hadn’t gone to Paris […] I would have had to abandon composition and devote myself to giving lessons in order to make a living13[13] Handwritten letter from Manuel de Falla to Ignacio Zuloaga, dated Granada, 12 February 1923. The location of the original is unknown. A photocopy may be consulted at A.M.F. (correspondence folder 7798)..
During his residence in Paris, Manuel de Falla met prominent composers and performers with whom he struck up friendships. He also continued his friendship with Joaquín Turina, who had moved to the French capital in 1905. In spite of the financial hardship in which he lived and the difficulties he experienced in bringing his opera La vida breve to the stage, Falla felt at home. He was greeted as an equal by all whom he met:The first great satisfaction I experienced in Paris was when, shortly after my arrival, I visited Dukas […] He asked me to show him a work of mine so that he could see what path I was following; I played him La vida breve […] and his words were so animated that, as I said to him, I felt as though I was waking up from a bad dream14[14] Handwritten letter from Manuel de Falla to Carlos Fernández Shaw, dated Paris, 31 May 1910. The original is preserved at the Fundación Juan March (Madrid), Archivo Fernández-Shaw. A photocopy may be consulted at A.M.F. (correspondence folder 6973)..
Falla gave this account of his first Parisian encounters in a letter to Carlos Fernández Shaw. Elsewhere in the letter, the composer extends what he calls his “litany of thanks”, stressing the importance of his meetings with Albéniz, Debussy, Ravel and the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes, among others.While waiting for the eventual success of La vida breve, Falla managed to get his Pièces espagnoles and his Trois mélodies performed publicly in Paris. The first performance of the Pièces espagnoles was given by Ricardo Viñes on 27 March 1909, while the songs were premiered on 4 May 1910 by the soprano Ada Adiny-Milliet, accompanied by Falla on the piano.
Sung in Paul Milliet’s French translation, La vida breve finally reached the stage on 1 April 1913, in Nice. The lead role (Salud) was sung by Lillian Grenville. At the end of the year, on 30 December, a public dress rehearsal of the work was given at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique in Paris, where it was officially premiered on 7 January 1914.
Just a few months later, on 3 August 1914, Germany declared war on France, and the First World War broke out. The situation forced Falla to return to Spain.
Back in Madrid, the composer hit the ground running: La vida breve was at last mounted on a Madrid stage: that of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, where it was premiered with great success on 14 November, with Luisa Vela as the first Spanish Salud.
