Manuel de Falla’s short opera “La vida breve” is perhaps the greatest opera in the entire Spanish repertoire. Premiered in 1913, it is the tragic story of the poor gypsy Salud, whose lover Paco betrays her and plans to wed a wealthy young woman. In his production at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts “Reina Sofia”, director Giancarlo del Monaco creates a psychological drama in which Salud is on stage at all times, as if witnessing her own living nightmare of blood and shame. Conductor Lorin Maazel, whom national daily El Paìs hails as the “triunfador” of the evening, leads an exquisite band of soloists headed by Chilean soprano Cristina Gallardo- Domâs, Jorge de León Paco and María Luisa Corbacho.