Amazon.com
This unique, 80-minute opera must be heard. The title means "Fountain of Tears" in Arabic and refers to the place in Granada where Federico Garcia Lorca was executed by Fascist soldiers in 1936. The work opens in a theater in Uruguay in 1969. As the actress Margarita Xirgu, who collaborated with Lorca in the 1920s and '30s, is about to go on stage, she recalls memories of him and his death and the survivor's guilt she feels. Musical images take us back as well. The sounds of hoofbeats, a fountain, and gun shots punctuate the otherwise beautiful, tonal, highly Spanish-influenced score, filled with flamenco and rumba rhythms. The vocal lines are all highly singable as well as dramatic. The work is mostly scored for women's voices: Margartita, sung by Dawn Upshaw; Lorca himself, sung by Kelley O'Connor; Nuria, Margarita's student, sung by Jessica Rivera. There is also an ensemble of women's voices that do most of the work. Margarita dies just before going onstage. The trio for her, Nuria, and Lorca is about as beautiful as anything you'll ever hear. "What a sad day it was in Granada / The stones began to cry" is a refrain that recurs throughout the opera, and the whole piece is sheer poetry. This is stunning. --Robert Levine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ainadamar means "Fountain of Tears" in Arabic, and is the first opera by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The libretto is by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It premiered in Tanglewood on August 10, 2003. After major revisions, the new version premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 30, 2005. It met its Chicago premiere at the Ravinia Festival on June 14, 2006.
The opera tells the story of playwright Federico García Lorca and his lover and muse, Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu. A unique aspect of this opera is that the part of male Lorca is played by a woman. The opera is told in reverse in a series of flashbacks, and involves Lorca's opposition to the Falange, accusations of homosexuality, and his subsequent murder.
The first recording came out on Deutsche Grammophon on May 9, 2006. It immediately sped to the top of the classical music Billboard charts. It was recorded by the artists for whom it was written, including Dawn Upshaw as Xirgu, Kelley O'Connor as Lorca, Jessica Rivera as Nuria, and conducted by Robert Spano with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and women of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
Both the recording and the opera met immediate critical acclaim. The recording has won two Grammy Awards -Best Opera Recording of 2006, and Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Like much of Golijov's work, the opera heavily incorporates Arab and Jewish idioms, as well as Spanish flamenco sounds — in fact, there is a flamenco guitar section incorporated into the orchestra.
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As noted above, the Atlanta recording is available from Deutsche Grammophon
and I have seen it available for download for less than $4 as mp3s.
and at Amazon.Com for about $14 (I guess I get the Canadian price.)
01 Preludio De Agua Y Caballo
02 Balada
03 Mariana, Tus Ojos (To Dawn Upshaw)
04 Bar Albor De Madrid
05 Desde Mi Ventana (Aria A La Estatua De Mariana)
06 Muerte A Caballo
07 Balada - 2
08 Quiero Arrancarme Los Ojos
09 A La Habana (Composed By Gonzalo Grau)
10 Quiero Cantar Entre Las Explosiones
11 Arresto
12 La Fuente De Las Lagrimas
13 Confesion
14 Interludio De Balazos Y Lamento Por La Muerte De Federico
15 Balada - 3
16 De Mi Fuente Tu Emerges
17 Tome Su Mano
18 Crepusculo Delirante
19 Doy Mi Sangre
20 Yo Soy La Libertad
The musical styles and track names (and I assume the lyrics are in Spanish) seem to make for an eclectic listen.
