The life and dying of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, whom Fascist forces assassinated through the Spanish Civil Struggle, is the topic of an opera making its Met Opera debut in New York Tuesday.
“Ainadamar” — which suggests “fountain of tears” in Arabic — brings flamenco and rumba to the Met’s prestigious stage, set towards the backdrop of violence and struggle, in true operatic style.
The work premiered in 2003 and is Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov’s solely opera, which earned him Grammy accolades in 2007.
The story in three scenes is advised by means of dream-like flashbacks, recounting Lorca’s relationship with the Catalonian actor and director Margarita Xirgu.
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The plot hinges on her reminiscences, and the opera opens with Xirgu, Lorca’s muse and good friend, who has spent her profession portraying Mariana Pineda within the poet’s play of the identical identify.
Her tales have surreal qualities not dissimilar to Lorca’s verse, and element the poet’s opposition to the Falange and his 1936 homicide over his socialist politics and homosexuality, towards the backdrop of Xirgu’s story of their friendship.
Chatting with AFP, the 63-year-old Golijov mentioned he believes his work “sounds prefer it belongs on the Met and might sit on the desk with the greats.”
Dance takes middle stage
It’s the first opera directed by Brazilian director and choreographer Deborah Colker — famend for her work with Cirque du Soleil — who staged it in Scotland in 2022.
Dance takes on comparable prominence with the drama and the music, which incorporates a mixture of conventional opera with digital sounds and rhythms.
Even the protagonists dance, together with the soprano Angel Blue, who performs Xirgu. The story is woman-forward: even Lorca is performed by the Argentina-born mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack.
Mack additionally performed Lorca in 2022 and mentioned the work gives a problem as a result of “there are a lot of parts that aren’t essentially current in a extra conventional opera.”
“Ainadamar” is the most recent effort by New York’s Met to attract in new operagoers and broaden its base.
It’s the second Spanish-language opera in a row to be staged within the Met’s hallowed halls, after final yr’s presentation of “Florencia en el Amazonas.”
Colker is because of return in 2026 for a staging of one other opera in Spanish: “Frida and Diego.”
The corporate has discovered explicit field workplace success with operas by residing composers, together with “The Hours” and “Hearth Shut Up In My Bones.”
It premiered this yr’s season with “Grounded” — an exploration of up to date warfare and know-how set towards the backdrop of motherhood.
AFP
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