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Sandra Ferrández chooses her favorite aria for Ópera Actual: “¡Allí está riyendo!”, from La vida breve by Manuel de Falla
6 of November of 2025 |
Mezzo-soprano Sandra Ferrández, one of the most versatile and expressive voices on the Spanish opera scene, has shared with the magazine Ópera Actual her “favorite aria”: “¡Allí está riyendo!”, from La vida breve by Manuel de Falla.
Ferrández debuted this work last February with the ADDA·Simfònica orchestra under the direction of Maestro Miquel Ortega, in a project spearheaded by Maestro Josep Vicent. “When its principal conductor, Maestro Josep Vicent, called me to offer me the role, I wept with joy. I still remember the sound of the orchestra in the hall mingled with the expectant silence of the audience in that marvelous auditorium; I can even recall the smell of that magical space where I have experienced some of my most special moments and where I always feel at home.”
In the artist's words, Salud's aria in the second act represents one of the most intense pages of the Spanish repertoire: an emotional outburst in which fury is mixed with vulnerability, love betrayal with social discrimination, and the orchestra acquires a dark and dramatic color, with all the expressive force of verismo.
Throughout her career, Sandra Ferrández has performed a vast repertoire ranging from Dalila, Charlotte, Laura Adorno, and Carmen to the great works of the French and Italian repertoires. But she confesses that this aria by Falla holds a special meaning for her: “For many reasons, my favorite aria is Salud’s ‘¡Allí está riyendo!’ from the second act of Manuel de Falla’s La vida breve.”
📰 You can read the text in section “Mi aria favorita” de Ópera Actual (n.º 284).
Ferrández debuted this work last February with the ADDA·Simfònica orchestra under the direction of Maestro Miquel Ortega, in a project spearheaded by Maestro Josep Vicent. “When its principal conductor, Maestro Josep Vicent, called me to offer me the role, I wept with joy. I still remember the sound of the orchestra in the hall mingled with the expectant silence of the audience in that marvelous auditorium; I can even recall the smell of that magical space where I have experienced some of my most special moments and where I always feel at home.”
In the artist's words, Salud's aria in the second act represents one of the most intense pages of the Spanish repertoire: an emotional outburst in which fury is mixed with vulnerability, love betrayal with social discrimination, and the orchestra acquires a dark and dramatic color, with all the expressive force of verismo.
Throughout her career, Sandra Ferrández has performed a vast repertoire ranging from Dalila, Charlotte, Laura Adorno, and Carmen to the great works of the French and Italian repertoires. But she confesses that this aria by Falla holds a special meaning for her: “For many reasons, my favorite aria is Salud’s ‘¡Allí está riyendo!’ from the second act of Manuel de Falla’s La vida breve.”
📰 You can read the text in section “Mi aria favorita” de Ópera Actual (n.º 284).
