It’s time to look ahead to Welsh National Opera’s Autumn 2023 Season, which features Ainadamar, a 21st century Spanish opera by the Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. Here, we take a closer look at the opera’s unusual and dramatically modern structure, which sets it apart from other operas.
The story of Ainadamar is about the execution of poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, told through the memory flashbacks of his friend and artistic collaborator, Margarita Xirgu. David Henry Hwang, the opera’s librettist, decided to split the opera into three parts, or three ‘images’ as he calls them. Each image represents a figure of freedom in the opera; the first, Mariana Pineda, the second, Federico García Lorca, and the third, Margarita Xirgu herself.
Image One – Mariana Pineda, Uruguay 1969
Actress Margarita Xirgu is preparing to go on stage to play the title role in Lorca’s famous play, Mariana Pineda, for the last time. Mariana was a real historical figure who was executed for her views against the dictatorial Spanish monarchy of the 1820s, a legend of Spanish liberalism and the protagonist of ballads that were later sung to children.
Opening the start of each operatic image is the ballad of Mariana Pineda from Lorca’s play, sung by the actresses who sing of the stones that cry for Mariana’s death and the tolling of the bells. It is an eerie foreshadowing of the death to come in the opera.
Waiting to go on stage, Margarita tells her student Nuria of her memories of Lorca, and her guilt and regret that she might have saved him by forcing him to escape the newly erupted Civil War in Spain. Ruiz Alonso, the flamenco-singing Falangist officer of the Spanish fascist party, interrupts Margarita’s memory, and the state radio demands the end of the revolution against them.
Image Two – Federico García Lorca, Granada 1936
The second image features Margarita’s memory flashback of her time with Lorca in the summer of 1936, just as the Spanish Civil War breaks out across the country. Margarita begs Lorca to leave Spain with her and her theatre company for a safer climate in Cuba, but Lorca insists on staying in Granada to document the suffering of the people.
Margarita is forced to leave Spain, but later imagines Lorca’s arrest by the Falangists, where he is led to the fountain of tears, Ainadamar and is shot alongside two others, a bullfighter and a teacher.
Image Three – Margarita Xirgu, Uruguay 1969
The final image brings us back to the present day and shows the contemplative Margarita as she prepares for death. She is comforted by the spirit of Lorca who thanks her for her continuation of his legacy after his passing. Nuria is chosen to continue Lorca’s legacy after Margarita’s departure. Margarita sings her final words: Yo soy la libertad (I am freedom), the final words of Mariana Pineda, and dies, at last joining Lorca.
Ainadamar will be sure to create a gripping and exhilarating spectacle for all: make sure you don’t miss this unique opportunity to experience the passion of flamenco, traditional Spanish singing, poetry and intense operatic numbers. Opening at Wales Millennium Centre on 9 September, Ainadamar later tours to Llandudno, Bristol, Plymouth, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Southampton until 22 November.