Ainadamar, ‘The Fountain of Tears’ * Metropolitan Opera House, NYC * the life of poet and playwright Federico García Lorca

Oct 15 – Nov 9, 2024 (9 performances only)

Metropolitan Opera House
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023

https://www.metopera.org/season/2024-25-season/ainadamar/

Ainadamar brilliantly reimagines the life of poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, whose politics and sexuality led to his brutal execution during the Spanish Civil War. His story comes to life with startling beauty in this electrifying show. Osvaldo Golijov’s Grammy-award winning cinematic score grabs you from the very first beat – weaving together influences from around the world in a mesmerizing mixture of opera and the traditional song and dance of Andalusia.

Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov’s Grammy Award–winning first opera dramatizes the life and work of poet-playwright Federico García Lorca, who was assassinated by fascist forces at the start of the Spanish Civil War for his socialist politics and homosexuality. His story emerges through the memories of Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu, Lorca’s muse—sopranos Angel Blue and Gabriella Reyes—who reminisces to her student Nuria, portrayed by soprano Elena Villalón. Lorca himself makes a dreamlike appearance, sung as a trouser role by mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, and flamenco singer Alfredo Tejada completes the principal cast as the Falangist politician Ramón Ruiz Alonso, who arranged Lorca’s execution. Combining features of both an opera and a passion, Ainadamar, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya in his Met debut, crackles with the energy and rhythms of flamenco and rumba, as well as the violent backdrop of civil war, all of which springs forth on the Met stage in a vivid company-debut production by Brazilian director and choreographer Deborah Colker, renowned for her work with Cirque du Soleil.

Editor’s Note: This production also features Flamenco guitarist Adam del Monte and percussionist Gonzalo Grau with the stunning work of award-winning Spanish choreography Antonio Najarro, former director of Ballet Nacional de España (BNE) and currently director of his own Compañía Antonio Najarro. Najarro was recently honored as the first Spanish choreographer to win the “Best International Choreographer 2024” award from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors.