New York's Met Stages Spanish Opera For First Time In Nearly A Century

New York, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Nov, 2023) For the first time in nearly a century, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City will stage a performance in Spanish on Thursday, as the company works to expand its appeal to wider audiences.

"Florencia en el Amazonas" is a magical realist telling of an opera diva's journey to South America to find her long lost lover, a butterfly hunter who disappeared in the jungle.

The protagonist Florencia Grimaldi -- played by soprano Aylin Perez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants -- boards a steamboat in the early 20th century en route to Manaus, home of the legendary opera in the heart of Brazil's Amazon.

"It's wonderful to have a new work that people don't know as well," said director Mary Zimmerman of the opera that premiered in 1996 in Houston.

In an interview with AFP, Zimmerman said that opera-goers tend to prioritize the classics: "Opera loves its traditions."

But even if "people like that to visit the old friend," she said, "they should make new friends too.

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The opera composed by Mexico's Daniel Catan, his third, was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera.

Its libretto is by Marcela Fuentes-Berain, who also is Mexican, and studied with the beloved pioneer of magical realism, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The opera is relatively new but has elements of romanticism, Zimmerman said.

"It's melodic, it's lush, it sounds like Puccini," she said.

The opera also centers on the eternal dilemma of career versus love, with three types of women setting sail on the "El Dorado" ship, amid a set of abundant vegetation and rich fauna.

Along with the diva who has achieved fame but sacrificed love, there is Rosalba, a journalist writing a biography of the opera star and who does not want love to divert her path, and a woman embroiled in a spat with her lover.

But a violent storm upends the ship -- and with it the once staunch principles of its passengers.