La vida breve, in two acts, based on a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw, is the story of Salud, the gypsy heroine, a victim of passion and betrayal. The curtain rises, after a short introduction, on a gypsy habitation. From one side comes the singing of men working in a forge, Get on with your job, for man was born to work! (Street vendors can be heard selling oranges, strawberries and figs.) Meanwhile Salud's grandmother feeds her pet birds. Salud enters, anxious that Paco may not come, and is reassured by her grandmother. Eventually Paco arrives, vowing eternal love. Salud and Paco sing a moving duet, Grandmother returns to watch the couple, joined by Uncle Sarvaor ('an old gypsy, dark, violent and ill-tempered') who wants to kill Paco, knowing that he is marrying another girl the next day.

Act II is set in a narrow street in Granada. Behind the railings of a patio a wedding party is in full swing, the scene opening with flamenco singing to the bride and bridegroom, Carmela and Paco. A dance follows and Salud appears. She is aware of what is happening and questions whether to confront Paco. The arrival of grandmother and uncle brings embraces for Salud and curses against Paco, who grows pale. Salud thinks she hears Paco's voice among the gathering and decides to enter the patio, repeating the words of the labourers at the forge, It is hard to be born an anvil instead of a hammer.

After a brilliant orchestral interlude, the scene changes to the courtyard in the house of Carmela and her brother, Manuel, where the party is held. While Manuel rejoices at the day's happiness, Paco remains anxious. Uncle Sarvaor's entry, followed by Salud, causes the guests to wonder if these are more gypsy entertainers, but Salud reveals she has come not to sing or dance but to confront Paco and remind him of his vows to her. When Paco accuses her of lying, Salud falls dead at his feet, overcome with grief. Grandmother and uncle conclude the opera with cries of 'Traitor' and 'Judas'.

La vida breve, written when Falla was in his late twenties, is a powerful, spontaneous work, brimming with passion, variety of moods, and the vividness of Andalusia. The focus remains throughout on Salud herself, the other characters serving to accentuate the heroine's tragic movement from youthful optimism to betrayal and death. Paco, however, is both sophisticated and disingenuous, offering specious pledges of love but selecting a wealthier girl from a higher social class as his bride. But he also deceives Carmela and Manuel as his callousness transforms the wedding day, which should be joyful, to shades of deepest tragedy.

The grandmother offers protective family love and mature wisdom, though both attributes are inadequate to protect Salud from the pitfalls of love. Uncle Sarvaor, from the darker side of gypsy experience, is the product of a hard existence resulting in a tendency to violence as well as a ready repertoire of fearsome curses. Overall the opera is set against the grim atmosphere at the forge where workers endure harsh daily labour. Their commentary on life, heard from the outset, becomes through Salud's destruction the inescapable verdict, It's hard for the man unlucky from birth. Salud's misfortune is that, despite her beauty, she too is destined to discover the truth of this, and thus she sings her own version of the workers' song before the final confrontation.

La vida breve is a dramatic parable about life's tragic predicaments expressed through the beauty of Falla's sublime music. But within this framework of tragedy a sense of utter vitality is always present, evoking the splendours of passionate love and life reflected in song and dance, even if inevitably matched against the frailties of human nature. Most of all Falla unfolds a vision of the undeniable ebullience of Andalusian life, depicted through the brilliant colours of the quintessential Spanish imagination.

Danza, comes from Act II of Falla's opera, La vida breve. The scene, set in a narrow street of Granada (where behind the railings of a patio a wedding party is in full swing), has opened with a flamenco song to the bride and bridegroom, Carmela and Paco. The orchestra then immediately launches into this brilliant Danza, one of the opera's most dramatic moments, where the dancers are given ample opportunity to demonstrate their virtuosity. To the accompaniment of castanets, Falla deploys a powerfully evocative theme full of vitality and exuberance. Danza, so deeply characteristic of its composer, not only represents one of the most memorable moments of La vida breve but has also become one of Falla's most popular orchestral concert items.