Following up on Friday evening’s live-stream of the San Francisco Opera (SFO) 100th Anniversary Concert, my wife and I went to the War Memorial Opera House last night for our first “physical” encounter with Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera, El último sueño de Frida y Diego (the last dream of Frida and Diego). This staging was co-produced with San Diego Opera, which presented the world premiere this past October. The commission also included support from the Fort Worth Opera and the DePauw University School of Music, along with support from the University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts.
Diego Rivera (Alfredo Daza, right) is visited by La Catrina (Yaritza Véliz, left) at his memorial for Frida Kahlo (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)
The protagonist of this opera is the artist Diego Rivera (sung by baritone Alfredo Daza). The narrative begins on the Day of the Dead in 1957 (November 2), three years after the death of his wife Frida Kahlo (mezzo Daniela Mack), also an artist. Every year the Keeper of the Dead, La Catrina (soprano Yaritza Véliz, making her SFO debut), allows a select number of souls to spend the day visiting those they left behind in the world of the living. (Think of the Orpheus myth being stood on its head.) It is in this context that Rivera has his last encounter with Kahlo before his own death.
The libretto by Nilo Cruz frames this plot in a narrative structure that moves forward at a steady pace. As a result, there is little room for the usual operatic tropes of arias and explanatory choral movements. Nevertheless, Frank’s music came across as comfortably framed. Indeed, that steady pace turns out to be rather demanding; and there were times when I felt as if I was struggling to keep up with it. Fortunately, most (if not all) of the expressiveness that drives the narrative forward resides in the instrumental music, leaving the vocalists to focus on developing their respective character traits.
Cruz also reinforced his narrative with some fascinating secondary characters. At the very beginning of the opera, when Rivera is visiting Kahlo’s grave, he is approached by three villagers (baritone John Fulton, tenor Adler Fellow Moisés Salazar, and bass Ricardo Lugo). They want to know if he is the Diego Rivera. Rivera is gracious in his response, suggesting that Cruz found this the perfect way to “warm up” the audience with an opening gesture. The underworld has a character of its own in the form of the actor Leonardo (countertenor Jake Ingbar, making his SFO debut), who specializes in impersonating Greta Garbo. Like Kahlo, he is permitted to return to the living to visit a friend that always wanted to meet Garbo (regardless of the fact that Garbo was still alive in 1957).
The fact is that there is so much in this opera’s narrative and in the breadth of detail in the staging conceived by Director Lorena Maza that I could barely keep up with the unfolding of the plot and the traits that define each of the characters. In that context I am glad that I shall have the opportunity to experience this production a second time one week from today. While I have been listening to Frank’s music for many years, this was my first encounter with a full-evening effort (probably hers as well). I am glad that I have been able to schedule my time in a manner that will give her opera the attention it deserves.
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