Osvaldo Golijov's first opera, Ainadamar, was a disappointment at its premiere two years ago, especially for anyone susceptible to the Latin rhythms of his wildly popular St Mark Passion. But at a subsequent performance in Los Angeles, Peter Sellars saw its potential and teamed up with the composer and the librettist David Henry Hwang for a revised version, now in repertory at the Santa Fe Opera in a production by Sellars.
Where the episodic format of Ainadamar once seemed cumbersome, now it is a strength. Golijov transcends narrative opera by creating dreamlike scenes that touch the essence of the two main characters, the young Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca and the actress Margarita Xirgu.
Xirgu starred in Lorca's Mariana Pineda, the source of the opera's life-imitates-art theme: Lorca is shot by fascists in 1936, Mariana was killed for revolutionary activities a century before.
The story is told by an ageing Xirgu in flashbacks that are easily grasped, thanks in part to Xirgu's student Nuria, who replaces a younger incarnation of Xirgu. And Lorca emerges as a stronger presence, planning a future with Xirgu in Havana only to make the fateful decision to remain in Spain. One holdover is the chilling barrage of gunshots upon his execution at Ainadamar ("fountain of tears").
As with Kaija Saariaho's L'amour de loin, Sellars is at his best when dealing sympathetically with a new work, and the richly detailed mural-set by the painter Gronk evokes Picasso's Guernica. Dawn Upshaw is outstanding as Xirgu, singing now with Mozartean limpidness, now with gut-wrenching power. As Lorca, a trouser role, Kelley O'Connor sings with androgynous purity. Nuria is the clear-voiced Jessica Rivera. The conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya delights in the rhythmic intricacy.
What one thinks of Ainadamar depends on one's response to the flamingo idiom and Latin American rhythms in Golijov's music. One could question whether it is classical music at all, were it not for its daring musical-dramatic vision.
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