SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA  REVIEW
 

Golijov, Ainadamar: Soloists and Orchestra of Teatro Argentino. Conductor: Rodolfo Fischer, Teatro Argentino, La Plata. 30.5.2010 (JSJ)

Director/costumes: Claudia Billourou

Sets/lighting: Juan Carlos Greco

Cast:

Federico García Lorca: Franco Fagioli

Margarita Xirgu: Marisú Pavón

Nuria: Patricia González

Ruiz Alonso: Jesús Montoya

José Tripaldi: Víctor Castells

Maestro: Emiliano Bulacios

Torero: Sergio Spina

 

Federico (Franco Fagioli) and Margarita (Marisú Pavón).

For its Bicentenary celebrations the Teatro Argentino put on an all Argentine programme combining ballet and opera with Alberto Ginastera’s Estancia and Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov.

Ainadamar is Golijov’s first and so far only opera and is a homage to the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca through the memories of his muse the actress, Margarita Xirgu, at the end of her life. Golijov, who was born in La Plata in 1960, left Argentina in 1983 making his way via Israel to the US, where he is now resident and where the work was premiered, at the Tanglewood Festival in 2003. Subsequently it was presented in a revised version by the Santa Fe Opera and has appeared on a double Grammy winning recording from Deutsche Grammophon, and also has been presented by other opera houses, although a search of this site doesn’t throw up any reviews.

This production was the work’s premier in the composer’s home city and country, and indeed in South America. The work is presented in three “images,” in total about 80 minutes in length, with the libretto by David Henry Hwang, probably best known for his play M. Butterfly. The first, entitled “Mariana,” recalls García Lorca’s play Mariana Pineda and opens in Montevideo in 1969, with Xirgu telling her pupil Nuria, about her first meeting with the playwright and of his ideas on freedom. The second, “Federico,” sees Margarita trying to persuade Federico to accompany her to Cuba, but he prefers to go to his home in Granada to write, where later the Falangist Ruiz Alonso appears to lead him to the place of execution. The third, “Margarita,” returns to the aged Xirgu lamenting lost freedoms under the Spanish military dictatorship and when the spirit of García Lorca appears, together they enter a visionary transformation.

The music that accompanies this text is perhaps best described as a “fusion,” combining the different musical elements of Spain with orchestration including two guitars, extended percussion, including cajóns, congas and chekeres, and even pre-recorded sound. There are some wonderful melodic moments, but they are few and far between, and mostly the score is a brilliance of sounds, with the electronic voices and sounds adding the darker moments.

I suppose an “experience” such as this one either finds attractive or not, and I didn’t, but that is not to deny the polish and accomplishment of the production. The orchestra under Chilean-Swiss Rodolfo Fischer was spirited, and the singers adequately coped with the vocal demands, mostly more lament-like than lyrical. Margarita was played with power and poignancy by Marisú Pavón, in place of the initially announced Graciela Oddone, and Franco Fagioli, a countertenor (the role was written for a mezzo) was an intense García Lorca, while Patricia González was a fresh Nuria, and Jesús Montoya, a cantaor, who also sung the role in the DG recording, was an expansive Ruiz Alonso. The other roles were also competently presented.

A word too on Estancia, which also was polished and well presented. The work, probably most familiar as an orchestral suite, was written by Ginastera – arguably Argentina’s best known composer and after whom the Teatro Argentino’s main auditorium is named – in 1943 as a homage to the gaucho and his life on the land. The ballet, choreographed by Carlos Trunsky, was colourful and engaging, and the music enthusiastically played, ensuring that the full presentation was a very worthy offering for the Bicentenary.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Picture © Genitti/Teatro Argentino