Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar is a short opera addressed to one of the cataclysmic events in twentieth century Spanish culture, the murder of poet Federico García Lorca by Falangist enforcers. In this premiere recording, Osvaldo Golijov: Ainadamar, Dawn Upshaw portrays Margarita Xirgu, the Spanish actress who took the lead role in the original production of The House of Bernarda Alba and attempted to save García Lorca through luring him to Cuba, an option he elected not to take. Kelley O'Connor portrays the ill-fated García ...
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Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar is a short opera addressed to one of the cataclysmic events in twentieth century Spanish culture, the murder of poet Federico García Lorca by Falangist enforcers. In this premiere recording, Osvaldo Golijov: Ainadamar, Dawn Upshaw portrays Margarita Xirgu, the Spanish actress who took the lead role in the original production of The House of Bernarda Alba and attempted to save García Lorca through luring him to Cuba, an option he elected not to take. Kelley O'Connor portrays the ill-fated García Lorca in a performance given with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano and featuring its women's chorus. Ainadamar premiered at Tanglewood in 2003, and proved a little on the lean side dramatically, so Peter Sellars was brought in to punch up the libretto, and he contributes the summary here.First, the good -- this is definitely a plum role for Upshaw, who most often appears as an art song singer. Her dramatic turns have tended to be limited to pieces where an expert...
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