The two recordings listed for comparison above date from 1966 and 1978, with Victoria de los Angeles and Teresa Berganza respectively in the crucial role of Salud; EMI also have a 1954 mono version (7/54), again with los Angeles, available only as part of a four-CD set of Falla rarities. Tough competition, but we could do with a modern digital recording and this one also offers a new critical edition of the score. I cannot say that I noticed any conspicuous differences nor, to be honest, any other respects in which the newcomer outfaces its predecessors. In the central role Egido demonstrates a forceful and exciting dramatic soprano – it is no surprise that she has been singing Tosca and Odabella in Verdi’s Attila – but she seldom sings quietly, makes very little expressive use of words and her voice takes on a wobble at times. The plot of La vida breve is very close to that of Cavalleria rusticana, but Salud should be readily distinguishable from Santuzza. Ordonez is a forceful, baritonal Paco, hidden by the orchestra whenever he sings quietly, Perelstein has pitch problems, but Baquerizo is reliable, the cantaor Heredia Fernandez sounds authentic and in his brief contributions Arevalo is a tenor worth watching.
It is something of a shouting match, not aided by off-stage voices that are far too close, and by anvils in the opening scene that sound exactly like tablespoons. Pons’s direction, perhaps understandably, is on the coarse side, and dismally slow in the wedding jota. The choice remains between Fruhbeck de Burgos on EMI: idiomatic, adequately recorded, with los Angeles a movingly vulnerable expressive heroine; and Navarro on DG: Berganza a more smoky, guttural Salud, with an excellent supporting cast including the young Jose Carreras as a lyrical Paco; it has the best orchestral playing of the three and is excellently recorded.'