Review Roundup: Ainadamar at the Metropolitan Opera

Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang’s Grammy Award–winning first opera has opened at the Met in a stunning new production by Deborah Colker.

Find out what the critics thought of the opera, starring Angel Blue, Elena Villalón, and Daniela Mack. Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts.

Sung in Spanish to a libretto translated by its composer, Ainadamar—literally “Fountain of Tears”—dramatizes the life and work of poet-playwright Federico García Lorca, whose socialist politics and homosexuality led to his violent assassination by Fascist forces at the start the Spanish Civil War. 

Lorca’s story emerges through the memories of Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu, Lorca’s muse, sung by soprano Angel Blue. Blue returns later this season to make her Met role debut as the title character of Verdi’s Aida in a highly anticipated new production on New Year’s Eve. Soprano Gabriella Reyes performs the role on October 30. Lorca himself makes a dreamlike appearance, sung as a trouser role by mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack.

Soprano Elena Villalón takes on the role of Nuria, a student to whom Xirgu reminisces about her memories of Lorca. Peruvian conductorMiguel Harth-Bedoya leads Golijov’s flamenco- and rumba-infused score, and flamenco singer Alfredo Tejada is Ramón Ruiz Alonso, the Falangist politician who arranged Lorca’s execution; both Harth-Bedoya and Tejada make their Met debuts with this production. 

Along with Colker, the creative team also includes set and Costume Designer Jon Bausor, lighting designer Paul Keogan, projection designer Tal Rosner, and flamenco choreographer Antonio Najarro in their Met debuts, along with sound designer Mark Grey.  

---

Rick Perdian, New York Classical Review: Known for her work with Cirque du Soleil, Colker wove movement into every measure of Golijov’s score. The result was a trancelike flow of music and motion that captured the opera’s mix of gritty realism and mysticism. Before coming to the Met, Colker’s production was staged by the Scottish Opera and Detroit Opera. It nonetheless feels custom-made for the Met, perfect in both scope and scale."

Joshua Barone, The New York Times: "You could picture a more successful presentation of “Ainadamar” as an oratorio in the concert hall, in the vein of “La Pasión Según San Marcos.” But as written, and as performed at the Met, the opera doesn’t crackle and smolder like the Lorca works it so earnestly tries to honor."

---

Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

To post a comment, you must register and login.