United States Daniel Catán, Florencia en el Amazonas: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York / Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor). Transmitted reside (directed by Gary Halvorson) and seen at Cineworld Basildon, Essex, 9.12.2023. (JPr)
Manufacturing:
Manufacturing – Mary Zimmerman
Set designer – Riccardo Hernández
Costume designer – Ana Kuzmanić
Lighting designer – T.J. Gerckens
Choreographer – Alex Sanchez
Projection designer – S. Katy Tucker
Forged:
Florencia Grimaldi – Ailyn Pérez
Rosalba – Gabriella Reyes
Paula – Nancy Fabiola Herrera
Arcadio – Mario Chang
Alvaro – Michael Chioldi
Riolobo – Mattia Olivieri
Captain -Greer Grimsley
Stay in HD host – Rolando Villazón
Florencia en el Amazonas is impressed by the magical-realist fiction of Gabriel García Márquez and is the ultimate work of the late Mexican composer Daniel Catán. It was the primary opera in Spanish to be commissioned by a serious American firm (really three, the operas in Houston, Los Angeles and Seattle). Since its premiere in Houston in 1996 it has been seen extensively all through the U.S., in Germany and Mexico Metropolis. Irrepressible Stay in HD host Mexican opera star and theatre director Rolando Villazón informed the watching cinema audiences that ‘I knew the late composer Daniel Catán fairly nicely, a beautiful particular person and artist and my fellow Mexican who as soon as mentioned that it was his creative mission to create a brand new custom of opera with a Latin-American perspective. It was additionally his dream to see Florencia en el Amazonas have its Met premiere so wherever he’s he should be dancing out of happiness. That is the primary opera sung in Espanol, in Spanish, right here in 100 years.’
The opera’s quite skinny plot options simply three character-driven vignettes involving folks thrown collectively on the steamboat El Dorado for a journey alongside the Amazon River within the early 1900s. They’re all travelling to Manaus to see the mysterious and reclusive diva Florencia Grimaldi sing on the opera home on her return to her homeland. Apparently, it’s not tailored from anyone specific García Márquez story although Marcela Fuentes-Berain’s libretto attracts closely on a 1985 novel of his, Love within the Time of Cholera. What we see unfold is just tales of remembering, discovering and rekindling love. Rosalba is a journalist cradling her analysis for the guide she needs to write down about Grimaldi and who tries to maintain her burgeoning emotions for the captain’s nephew Arcardio – who intends to cease engaged on the river and turn into a pilot – in verify. Each of them are determined to pursue the trail they’ve set out on. The married couple, Paula and Alvaro bicker consistently and even consign their marriage ceremony rings to the river. For each {couples} – both on this world or the following because the ending of the opera appears inconclusive – love wins out.
Additionally on board is the stoic sea captain; then there’s Grimaldi, herself, travelling incognito and brooding endlessly over a former lover Cristóbal, a butterfly hunter misplaced years in the past within the jungle and who she hopes should be alive; and Riolobo, one of many crew onboard who’s the middleman between the actual and the paranormal world of the river with its natural world. Riolobo begins Act I because the narrator of the opera we’ll see whereas he ends the act because the deux ex machina spirit of the Amazon who quells a storm.
Mary Zimmerman’s staging is straightforward and efficient, extra Broadway than Metropolitan Opera with set designer Riccardo Hernández bracketing an basically naked blue stage flooring with LED screens largely displaying inexperienced vegetation (and the interpretation). Curved sections of deck railing are moved about, and there’s not way more other than the steering wheel. At the beginning of the second act after the El Dorado has run aground as a result of storm, we see a small model of it shrouded on the stage. At this level I unsure whether or not anybody on the steamboat has survived and maybe what we see any longer is them within the afterlife. I do know they may by no means set foot in Manaus because of an outbreak of cholera however are these coffins we see ‘floating’ down the river really these of the passengers and crew of the El Dorado? Presumably I’m overthinking this, regardless [spoiler alert] Florencia Grimaldi’s transformation right into a butterfly on the finish suggests I may be extra proper than improper.
I’ll let Mary Zimmerman describe among the remainder of what we see: ‘I needed to place the emphasis a bit bit extra on the panorama greater than on the little boat itself. You will have all of the flora and the fauna of the Amazon to select from so we do have numerous creatures that float on by or fly, however the costumes for the animals are glamorous I’d say. We’ve a faculty of piranha that are talked about within the libretto they’re sort-of dressed as girls in sort-of purple ballgowns, however additionally they have fins, they usually have giant fish on their heads they usually have these sort-of pannier of fish … We’ve a single heron which is performed by a really tall dancer, leggy dancer ‘trigger I sort of consider a heron that means and a bit flighty hummingbird. We would like the animals to be largely reasonable however I assume with a bit of caprice or graphic high quality or exaggeration so there are exaggerated takes on waterlilies and butterflies in fact. We even have some dancers and a few actors which can be dressed as waves, because the water itself, and there’s a big storm the place folks fall off the boat and my thought is that that these dancers really choose them up and twirl them round and twirl them away into the water.’ Based on Rolando Villazón, Mary Zimmerman’s theatrical motto is ‘By no means a boring second’!
Sadly, regardless of all of the potential of the plot (similar to it’s) and the staging (Lion King-style puppetry however) Florencia en el Amazonas is neither full-blown opera nor full-blown musical. A few of the drawback is that just like the oeuvre of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber it depends an excessive amount of on immediately recognisable pastiches of Puccini. That’s regardless of conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin replying – when requested by Rolando Villazón ‘Is it Latin-American music?’ – ‘Completely I really feel just like the spice, I really feel like Latin-American is spicey, I feel the spice is all within the orchestration, spicing the vocal traces.’ Definitely, what really ‘spices’ up Florencia Grimaldi’s three important arias is Catán’s homage to the different butterfly, Puccini’s Cio-Cio-San. And it’s all quite voice-shredding and relentless and I longed for these uncommon musical moments which didn’t finish in a crescendo.
The gifted forged impresses with its dedication to Catán’s trigger in addition to its vocal stamina. They’re headed by Ailyn Pérez (Florencia Grimaldi), who’s nicely supported by Gabriella Reyes (Rosalba), Mario Chang (Arcadio), Nancy Fabiola Herrera (Paula), Michael Chioldi (Alvaro), Greer Grimsley (Captain) and Mattia Olivieri (Riolobo). That his Met Orchestra has purchased into Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s obvious perception in Catán’s rating was evident from the spectacular sounds emanating from the loudspeakers of the Cineworld Basildon. Then once more, the musicians are well-versed within the music of Puccini and different verismo composers, in order that they weren’t encountering something revolutionary regardless of the necessity for numerous percussion together with marimba, metal pan and djembe (a West African drum).
I’m positive many will get pleasure from Florencia en el Amazonas way more than I did, and I fortunately settle for that. Sadly, the composer is not with us as a result of I’m sure with a little bit of modifying there’s a compelling one-act opera to be created from the present materials. As an example, what’s the level of the narrator Riolobo telling us within the first scene concerning the lives and motivations of the characters we’ll see and listen to who will then repeat a lot of that initially of the opera once they introduce themselves.
Jim Pritchard
Featured picture: opening scene of Florencia en el Amazonas with Mattia Olivieri (Riolobo) on the centre of the gangway © Ken Howard/Met Opera
