Golijov’s opera on Garcia Lorca proves a hit
At first blush, a new opera meditating on the life and death of Spanish poet/playwright Federico Garcia Lorca seems an unlikely choice to be a chart hit. But Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar” is precisely that.
Released last month by Deutsche Grammophon (DG), the opera’s world-premiere recording features soprano Dawn Upshaw, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and soprano Jessica Rivera alongside the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and conductor Robert Spano, a longtime Golijov champion. Its sales success mirrors that of DG’s first Golijov release last year of the song cycle “Ayre,” which also put Upshaw front and center.
Amid his lyrical lines and orchestration, Golijov embroiders the guitar and cante jondo (”deep song”) idioms of traditional flamenco with lilting Afro-Cuban grooves and hypnotic field recordings made in Chiapas, Mexico.
Born in Argentina to an Eastern European Jewish family, the 45-year-old composer is intimately familiar with the notion of shifting identity, whether he is contemplating his own or other people’s. “There are very few isolated places in the world today,” Golijov observes. “So identity — whether cultural, religious or musical — is a very fluid concept.”
He notes that his extraordinary palette of musical colors and idioms on which he draws is part of that fluidity. “When I use flamenco, for instance,” he explains, “it’s because I need to evoke a certain emotion, not because the music is ‘flamenco.’ I modulate between cultures. I use them in the same way that other composers use tonal areas or modulate from key to key.”
Upshaw, a frequent muse for Golijov, sings the role of Margarita Xirgu in “Ainadamar.” She says that what he asks of her technically and emotionally has changed the way she approaches her own art.
“There’s an honesty and a beauty in his music,” Upshaw says. “Working with him has put me in a position where I am looking at my own life and my own music in a different way, and I am asking myself different questions, because I’m so moved by what he is doing.”
Upshaw’s enthusiasm seems to be shared by audiences, programmers and critics. This summer will see a broad sweep of Golijov performances. These include 1996’s “Last Round” at the Seattle Symphony and at Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Festival, as well as 2002’s “Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra,” featuring Upshaw, which the Minnesota Orchestra and conductor Osmo Vanska will perform at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the London Proms.
This August, Yo-Yo Ma will perform the world premiere of Golijov’s new work for cello and orchestra with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Donald Runnicles at Tanglewood.
Reuters/Billboard
