San Diego Opera holds the world premiere of “El último sueño de Frida y Diego” (“The Final Dream of Frida and Diego”), a brand new Spanish language opera that explores the connection between iconic Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
Artist Frida Kahlo
An image is likely to be value 1000 phrases however a Frida Kahlo self-portrait speaks volumes about her life.
“She painted her autobiography at all times,” stated director Lorena Maza. “Her artwork was so private. And I feel the extra private, the extra common. She depicted herself utterly as a girl, and in addition she had relationships together with her personal intercourse, and he or she was disabled. So she will be able to symbolize the power. She was by no means a sufferer. She dignified herself via her portray.”
Kahlo’s intensely private, usually witty and at all times boldly imaginative work reveal extra about her life experiences than any fastidiously researched biography.
“She simply painted her actuality,” stated mezzo-soprano Guadalupe Paz who sings the function of Frida. “Individuals thought it was, like, surrealism and it was not. She was very unique in that sense. And I feel that appeals to us as a result of after we see a portray of her, it is like she’s speaking or telling us a narrative about that second in her life.”
Turning Kahlo’s life into an opera
Bringing Kahlo’s story to life via opera fell into the palms of Grammy Award-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Nilo Cruz.
“I heard a chunk that Gabriela had composed, which the theme of it was The Day of the Lifeless,” Cruz stated. “And after I heard the piece and heard the gorgeous music, I stated to her that’s the entry into this world, and we should always not do a biopic of Diego and Frida, however perhaps, maybe Frida coming again to the world on the Day of the Lifeless.”
Día de Muertos or Day of the Lifeless gave them one thing to artistically construct on says Frank.
“Day of the Lifeless is simply unimaginable,” Frank stated. “There’s a component of fantasy, there’s a component of fiction that’s extra actual than a nonfiction and you need to stretch as an artist to have the ability to think about a universe that does not actually exist, however appears very genuine.”
Maza added that the lives of Kahlo and Diego have all the pieces you want in an opera: “They do have extraordinary lives and they’re extraordinary artists. So you have got politics, you have got intercourse, you have got love, you have got ardour, you have got artwork, you have got dying. It is all there.”
The dramatic set off for the story is Rivera’s final day on Earth.
“And he involves the graveyard on Día de Muertos to invoke Frida and name her again to assist him cross to Mictlan, to the underworld, the Aztec underworld,” Maza stated.
Within the opera, Frida returns from the lifeless with none of the ache she skilled in the true world from a horrific accident and dozens of surgical procedures. However she re-enters the world of the dwelling with a warning:
“‘Do not you dare contact Diego. Do not you dare contact your portray brushes,'” Maza stated. “‘You can’t do this as a result of in the event you do this, you may really feel the agony once more.'”
However ache outlined Kahlo’s life and her artwork and the opera brings that to vivid life.
“The connection that she has on stage on this opera with the work is so stunning as a result of within the second that she finds the easel, she revisits the ache,” Paz stated.
Kahlo discovers that she can’t paint with out the ache. Her struggling and her artwork have been impossibly intertwined. It was the ache when she was alive that actually was her inspiration for portray.
Staging a world premiere
New operas are usually not commonplace.
“There are even fewer operas in Spanish and even fewer operas in Spanish that symbolize or depict two Mexican cultural figures like Frida and Diego,” Maza stated. “So it has many components to make this a really distinctive and thrilling mission.”
“I do not perceive why there are usually not so many operas in Spanish,” Cruz added. “As a result of it is a language that actually sings fantastically.”
Frank, who isn’t a local Spanish speaker, liked that the opera was in Spanish.
“I’ve completed my finest vocal writing in Spanish as a result of Spanish is particular, Spanish is romantic and Spanish places me in my creativeness,” Frank stated. “English is like ho-hum, mundane. I take advantage of it daily. So I used to be very glad that they requested us to do that in Spanish and I knew it was going to drag out higher music.”
For Frank and Cruz that is greater than only a world premiere, it is the end result of 15 years of labor that has been the backdrop of their total relationship. It is usually an honor for them to deliver these artists to audiences in what they hope is a brand new gentle that befits the creativity of Kahlo and Rivera.
“I feel they might have been extra taken with this fanciful tackle their relationship and their lives than merely one other biography,” Frank stated.
Kahlo’s legacy
Though Kahlo died nearly seven a long time in the past her artwork stays vibrantly alive in popular culture the place her depictions of femininity, sexuality and incapacity all appears strikingly related.
“What’s wonderful is that each new era takes her picture and makes it their very own repeatedly and once more,” Maza stated.
And Kahlo would probably adapt properly to the world right this moment.
“I feel if Frida have been dwelling these days, she would in all probability even be a efficiency artist in some methods, the place the physique is a part of the artwork. I am simply considering of the ache, the physique,” Cruz stated.
“She would have an Instagram account she’d be sharing with the world daily,” Frank added.
San Diego Opera is poised to introduce its Frida Kahlo to the world this weekend in a Spanish language opera that sings the praises of Mexico’s iconic artist in a recent new means.
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