Review: AINADAMAR: THE FOUNTAIN OF TEARS at LA Opera
A dreamy fusion of music, dance, theatre, and film
Anyone who has ever strolled down Grand Avenue and glanced up at the street light banners will agree: LA Opera has a brilliant marketing team. With each presentation, they seem to come up with a clean, unified vision that makes their upcoming production seem appealing and broadly approachable. Remember the yellow campaign plastered across the city announcing their recent production of Così fan tutte? The quirky fun of the staging was broadcast perfectly to the public. Their approach to marketing Ainadamar: The Fountain of Tears, Deborah Colker’s staging of Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang’s dreamlike tribute to Federico García Lorca, seems to capitalize on the cinematic imagery conjured in the show. But in this instance, the marketing team faces a real challenge. Even sharing images of the swaths of light cutting across the stage and the mingling limbs of the chorus fails to communicate the palpable impact of these images. This is a performance you really must see to fully believe.
Jon Bausor’s scenic design relies on a massive ring of dangling cords which acts as a veil, making choreographic moments seem hazy and dreamlike in Paul Keogan’s layered lighting design. Singers performing upstage of the cords are blurry and shadowy and the effect is like watching grainy film or trying to recall a dream. Colker’s background as a movement director has elevated the production to rapturous effect. Bodies move through space in ways that are sultry, sensual, and earthy, completely unified beyond the rigid binary of dancer versus singer upon which operas can sometimes rest. The piece feels like a sophisticated relative of Cirque du Soleil and, with a striking funeral procession, a chorus of women villagers à la Agnes De Mille, and a revolving quartet of confessions, somehow also lands like a well-worn gem of musical theatre. Sometimes Tal Rosner’s projections feel abrasive in their literal depictions of images and relaying of information, but otherwise the piece could almost exist in an art museum. Image is precisely-honed for storytelling.
Perhaps calling an opera score ‘cinematic’ lands as a dig (wouldn’t a cinema composer rather hear that their score felt ‘operatic’?) but Golijov’s fusion of classical and contemporary sounds building in a chimerical crescendo furthers the experience of watching a live movie unfold before one’s eyes. Under conductor Lina González-Granados, every moment feels dramatically-informed and weighty. This relatively new work is certainly a gem within LA Opera’s season and will hopefully continue to hold its place among repertoires around the world.
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