New York City Opera to Present FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS, 6/22-26

New York City Opera concludes its 2016 season with the New York premiere of Florencia en el Amazonas by Daniel Cata?n. Performances are June 22, 23, 25, and 26 in Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall. New York City Opera inaugurates O?pera en Espan?ol, a landmark initiative of productions of opera in the Spanish language, Baroque to the contemporary, from Spain and Latin America, as well as zarzuela. O?pera en Espan?ol introduces the opera-loving public to a neglected but significant repertoire and aims to expand City Opera's reach to new and Spanish-speaking audiences.

John Hoomes stages Florencia en el Amazonas-about strangers sharing an Amazon voyage in the early 1900's on the steamboat El Dorado, among them the opera singer Florencia Grimaldi. This production of Nashville Opera is conceived by Hoomes with Barry Steele, video and lighting designer, Cara Schneider, scenic designer. Costumes are by Ildiko? Debrezceni. Dean Williamson conducts the New York City Opera Orchestra. Elizabeth Caballero portrays the title character Florencia Grimaldi; Sarah Beckham-Turner is Rosalba, a young journalist and biographer of Florencia; Lisa Chavez and Luis Ledesma are Paula and Alvaro, a married couple; Kevin Thompson is the ship's captain, Won Whi Choi is Arcadio, the captain's nephew, and Philip Cokorinos portrays Riolobo, a mystical figure of the Amazon River.

The opera Florencia en el Amazonas by Mexican composer Daniel Cata?n (1949-2011) is set to a libretto by Marcela Fuentes-Berain and represents the first Spanish-language opera to be commissioned by a major American opera company. Cata?n's passionate, sensuous, and evocative opera, inspired by the magical realism of Colombian writer Gabriel Garci?a Ma?rquez, received its premiere in 1996 at the Houston Grand Opera. Since then, Florencia en el Amazonas has become one of the most popular and frequently performed contemporary operas, produced by the Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center; companies in Utah, Colorado, Arizona; as well as in Germany, Mexico, and Brazil. After almost 20 years, these performances by the New York City Opera mark the work's New York City premiere.

Daniel Cata?n, born in Mexico City, completed studies in England and the United States, lived in Japan as well as Mexico, and taught at the University of Texas, remarked about the broad reach of his career: "When I confront myself in the mirror, I see a composer who has lived in many places searching for his operas. During my travels, I have thought a great deal about my own culture, about music and opera. I have searched wherever I could to understand them and unravel their mysteries. In the end, I can see it clearly, I've been in search of myself, of my place in the world, of my own voice."

Librettist Marcela Fuentes-Berain is a Mexican playwright, an award-winning writer of screenplays-including Las Esposas Felices se Suicidan a las Seis (Contented Wives Commit Suicide at Six), co-written with Gabriel Garci?a Ma?rquez-and television serial dramas.

Regarding the opera and its subsequent recording, Opera News wrote: "The world-premiere engagement of Cata?n's Florencia en el Amazonas, in 1996, was one of the most successful in the history of the Houston Grand Opera. This recording, taped during a 2001 revival, makes it easy to hear why. It is a ravishing piece of music, written in unabashedly tonal idiom that just recently had seemed extinct-Ravel and Szymanowski, by way of Villa-Lobos. Moreover, the opera's central theme-the transcendent power of love-is a compelling one, given dramatic flesh by the composer's rapturous musical invention. In an era when so many new operas are weighed down by familiar literary and theatrical texts, Florencia seems motivated by its music: it surges forward in gusts of lyrical inspiration."

Soprano Elizabeth Caballero returns to New York City Opera in the title role of opera singer Florencia Grimaldi. Ms. Caballero made her City Opera debut as Musetta in La bohe?me, in a star

Andrea Puente Cata?n, the composer's widow, commented on City Opera's production and

initiative, "Florencia en el Amazonas is a story of magic and reality, life and death, and above all, love and loss. There's a metamorphoses of love and beauty into one another and they become indistinguishable from each other. I am excited that Daniel's opera inaugurates Opera en Espan?ol, such a great initiative by New York City Opera:"

turn hailed by The New York Times as "the evening's most show-stopping performance offering a thrilling balance of pearly tone, exacting technique and brazen physicality." Named City Opera's Debut Artist of the Year, she then debuted in the Metropolitan Opera's Met in the Park series as Musetta and returned to The Met in the new production of Carmen as part of The Met: Live in HD series.

This season she appears as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Lyric Opera Kansas City, Zemfira/Nedda in Aleko/Pagliacci at Opera Carolina, Liu? in Turandot with Pacific Symphony, and in Verdi's Requiem at Opera Grand Rapids. Recent engagements include Donna Elvira at Seattle Opera, Florencia en el Amazonas at Nashville Opera, and John Rutter's Requiem at Carnegie Hall. A house favorite at Florida Grand Opera, she has dazzled Miami audiences as Contessa Almaviva, Liu?, Mimi?, Micae?la, and Magda.

Ms. Caballero made her European debut as Magda in La rondine at Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste. This led to appearances including Cio Cio San at the Staatsoper Berlin, Anne Trulove with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, and the title role in The Merry Widow at Teatro Nacional Santo Domingo.