‘Ainadamar is about how a myth is actually being born, how Lorca that was a breathing, living, laughing, loving person became a symbol, a myth – and how we can bring him back to be that man.’ — Osvaldo Golijov Ainadamar, literally meaning ‘Fountain of Tears’ in Arabic, is the name of an ancient well …
by Diana Burgwyn Osvaldo Golijov’s remarkable sound world in the opera Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar) is an amalgamation of his own Argentinian/ Jewish heritage and numerous other cultures, including Muslim, Jewish and Christian musical traditions. Above all, the score is suffused with the music of Lorca’s Spain: lush, seductive and with a strong undercurrent of …
How did you get started in music? I first started singing in my church. Our mother sings gospel, so we’ve always had music around us. She taught me and my twin brother, Kay’mon, how to sing. I was going to go the gospel route, until I got into the Youth Performing Arts School. I fell …
I am a bit of a Handel specialist; I’ve written a book about him as well as conducted a huge amount of his music. But I have never done Xerxes! I can’t believe I have gotten to my great age without doing it because, in a way, it’s one of the most popular of all …
In 2018, French musicologist Paul Prévost, in collaboration with music publisher Bärenreiter-Verlag, produced a new edition of Gounod’s Faust. This performing edition restores the spoken dialogue of the 1859 original that premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique on March 29, 1859, as well as previously unpublished numbers and melodramas. As Prévost further describes: Although several numbers …
BY DAVID SHENGOLD David Shengold explores the opera’s tragic heroine, a character who is in some way familiar to us all. Most American accounts of Gounod’s Faust get around sooner or later to two diverting facts about the piece. First, that in its early decades the Metropolitan Opera performed the score so often that wags …
At the southwest corner of the Detroit Opera House, you may have noticed a huge mural of our proscenium overlooking the intersection of John R and Broadway. The stage, which at first appears empty, is the site of an exciting new way for Detroit Opera to share its newest productions with Detroiters! Using augmented reality, …
The upcoming Detroit Opera production of Faust, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly, is the duo’s first collaboration in the operatic world. Over the past five years, the two have challenged generic boundaries to instead create an emergent body of work which resonates with anxieties, hopefulness, and as Kelly describes, “amplifying …
In 1978, during the nascent Michigan Opera Theatre’s seventh year as an organization, Charles Gounod’s Faust closed the season to rave reviews. “MOT’s Faust is Heavenly…they saved the best for last…The voices are strong and secure…[they] are the primary reasons for the opera’s success.” (Detroit Free Press, Feb. 12 1978) No voice soared higher than …
Certainly, Faust is one of history’s greatest operas – the quintessential “deal with the devil” that’s resonated with audiences since its premiere in 1859. This version, however, is different. Tony-nominated and Lincoln Center Theatre’s resident director Lileana Blain-Cruz first staged this production at Opera Omaha, which features Gounod’s original music & libretto for the Théâtre …
