Amor, vida de mi vida (Maravilla)

Maravilla came late, in 1941, when the zarzuela was already being written for a public that also went to the cinema, and Moreno Torroba answered with a score built around a single tenor romanza. Amor, vida de mi vida is that number: a declaration of love written in one long arc, with the melody kept simple enough to be remembered and the orchestration doing the arguing underneath. It became the most recorded page of its composer's theatre music.