Telling the story of the execution of poet and playwright Federico García Lorca by Spanish nationalists in 1936, we invite you to experience Ainadamar this Autumn. This groundbreaking opera by Osvaldo Golijov combines flamenco with traditional Spanish singing and sumptuous operatic numbers and is narrated from the perspective of the leading actress Margarita Xirgu, a long-time friend and artistic collaborator of Lorca.
The 1920s and 1930s were a politically tense time to live and work in Spain. Lurching from dictatorship to democracy to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, to be politically radical at this time, as were Margarita and Lorca, could be very dangerous. It was also an open secret that they were both gay, which was made illegal in 1928, under Miguel Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship and with the advent of the Francoist regime in 1936, gay people were mercilessly persecuted.
Lorca first saw Margarita perform in 1915 as the title role of Elektra and he was blown away by her artistic capabilities. He was so impressed with the actress’ performance that he wrote his play Mariana Pineda with her in mind as the principal role. He met her in Madrid in 1926 and she agreed to take on the project as lead actress and producer, and with sets and costumes designed by the famous Spanish surrealist, Salvador Dalí, Mariana Pineda opened in June 1927 in Barcelona. The production was Lorca’s first real theatrical success and marked the beginning of a close friendship between him and Margarita. From then on, they collaborated with each other to create new plays that have become central in the Spanish canon.
Margarita went on to create many roles for Lorca’s plays, including Shoemaker in The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife in 1930 and the eponymous role of Yerma in 1934. The last work she premiered in Lorca’s lifetime was Doña Rosita the Spinster in Barcelona in 1935. She also starred as the protagonist in the revival of Lorca’s Blood Wedding in 1935 and its 1938 film adaptation.
Tragically, Margarita and Lorca’s friendship was cut short by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and his assassination. Margarita discovered the news of his murder during one of her theatrical tours in Mexico before a performance of Yerma. She was so upset that during the performance she changed Yerma’s final cry from ‘I myself have killed my son’ to ‘They have murdered my son’.
The tragedy of Lorca’s assassination didn’t stop Margarita in promoting his legacy after his death. In exile due to the danger of returning home to Spain, Margarita spent the remainder of her life performing Lorca’s plays with her company around South America. Completed only a month before his death and therefore not performed during his lifetime, his The House of Bernada Alba was performed for the first time in 1945 by Margarita and her company in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While his poetry and theatre works were banned in Francoist Spain until 1953 and censored for years afterwards, Margarita was fundamental in preserving his artistic legacy for future generations of Spanish speakers around the world.
The story of Margarita and Lorca’s friendship, life and death come to life in the two-time grammy award-winning show, Ainadamar, performing in Cardiff, Llandudno, Bristol, Plymouth, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Southampton until 22 November.