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Los Angeles Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Rufus Wainwright's U.S. premiere of ‘Dream Requiem,' L.A. Opera's ‘Ainadamar': a spirtual double bill
Osvaldo Golijov's beauteously strange 'Ainadamar' has reached Los Angeles. The opera, one of this century's most gratifying, portrays the 1936 political execution of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca during the Spanish Civil War through the final minutes of actress Margarita Xirgu's life. She dies as she is about to go onstage in the Lorca play 'Mariana Pineda,' about the heroine of an earlier Spanish revolution. Margarita's final minute on Earth lasts 90 flamenco-filled minutes in Golijov's one-act opera. Lorca's life — his spirit and loves and lust — is revealed in flashbacks, which L.A. Opera makes the most of in a flamboyant, dance-drenched production. But it is Margarita's pain we feel, her death we experience and her life we mourn. Lorca's death, then, becomes a borrowed experience. He is a spirit of history. Margarita's last act is to pass on that spirit to a young actress, Nuria, and in the process, to us. The saddest of operas, 'Ainadamar' is not a tragic opera, not an opera of open-and-shut endings, but one of open-ended endings. Life goes on. But what comes next? A movie-length production without intermission can feel about right for a modern audience. 'Ainadamar' satisfies on its own but nevertheless suggests there is something more to consider. The sheer force of Margarita's being asks to remain in our consciousness longer. She did remain a little longer. Following the Sunday matinee of 'Ainadamar' at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Los Angeles Master Chorale gave the U.S. premiere of Rufus Wainwright's new 'Dream Requiem,' which proved an ideal companion to 'Ainadamar.' Although Golijov is an introspective Argentine American composer who comes out of the classical music world, his works are infused with folk song and dance from Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Wainwright is an introspective pop star with a noted folk song pedigree who also is an opera enthusiast and composer. At the pre-concert talk Sunday, Wainwright said hearing Verdi's Requiem as a 13-year-old changed his life. 'Ainadamar' and the 80-minute 'Dream Requiem' have poets at their core. Just as Lorca embodies Lorca, Wainwright threads recitations of Lord Byron's 1816 'Darkness,' throughout a score otherwise based on the traditional Latin requiem text. Each work is its own fountain of tears. Ainadamar is, in fact, the Arabic term for the Fountain of Tears, the site in Granada where Lorca was shot by a firing squad, presumably for political reasons as well as for being gay. In 'Dream Requiem,' we cry over the environment. Byron wrote 'Darkness' as a response to the 1815 Mt. Tambora volcano eruption in Indonesia, which clouded sunlight around the world for more than a year. The so-called 1816 'year without a summer' was also a time of revolt in Spain. Fifteen years later, the Spanish liberalist Mariana Pineda was executed. The three parts of 'Ainadamar' begin with the chorus singing a ballad to her. The magnificent performance of 'Dream Requiem' — conducted by Grant Gershon and featuring, along with the Master Chorale, the impressive Los Angeles Children's Chorus, an excellent large orchestra, the spectacular soprano Liv Redpath and a vehement Jane Fonda as the gripping narrator — proved a necessary complement to a more problematic performance of 'Ainadamar.' The opera has deep L.A. roots. A Los Angeles Philharmonic co-commission, the theatrically tentative first version of 'Ainadamar' survived on its instances of musical brilliance. Under the supervision of Peter Sellars, Golijov and librettist David Henry Hwang completely rewrote 'Ainadamar' for Santa Fe Opera in a sublimely moving production with gloriously grafitti-fied sets by L.A. artist Gronk. A musically promising but uncertain opera instantly turned into an essential classic for a new century. Long Beach Opera's tenuous local premiere of that version was followed by a powerful concert performance at the Ojai Music Festival with the Atlanta Symphony conducted by Robert Spano and starring Dawn Upshaw, the forces who made the work's celebrated recording. The L.A. Opera revival is a new production that has been making the rounds at Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Detroit Opera and, last fall, New York's Metropolitan Opera. It's the work of Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker, best known for creating the Cirque du Soleil touring show 'Ovo.' Colker treats 'Ainadamar' as another drama spectacle with dazzling imagery. The flamenco dancing, choreographed by Antonio Najarro, is exciting and the dancing terrific. Resplendent video projections by Tal Rosner appear on beaded curtains that surround a circular space in the middle of the stage where most of the action takes place. But all of this avoids the challenges of a magical realism where questions about the purpose of poetry, theater, political resistance, life and legacy are answerable only by dying. Golijov's score is also unanswerable, full of electronic effects, where the sound of gunshots beat out intricate dance rhythms. The three main characters are played by women: Margarita (Ana María Martínez), Nuria (Vanessa Becerra) and Lorca (Daniela Mack). All prove believable and their trio at the end is exquisite, even if with amplification and the dramatic limitations of the production they have limited presence. Alfredo Tejada makes a startling company debut as a ferociously frightening Ramón Ruiz Alonso, who arrests Lorca. The company's resident conductor, Lina González-Granados, thrives on forcefully emphasized dance rhythms. Less prominent were the opera's wondrous lyric moments or a sense of Golijov's inventive, multifaceted musical sources. Where the company makes up for that, though, is in its series of informative podcasts and program notes adding whatever context is lost in the staging. Like Golijov (and like Leonard Bernstein and Mahler), Wainwright is at heart a songwriter, and he had the advantage of Gershon conveying the luxuriant lyricism in 'Dream Requiem,' a work that at its heart also is operatic. He harks back to Verdi and the late 19th century but with his own unexpected turns of phrase. Like Golijov in 'Ainadamar,' Wainwright starts very quietly and slow-builds his musical architecture out of an array of materials and colors. He goes in for big effects, lots of percussion, huge climaxes and sweet melodies of which you can never, if so inclined, get enough. Wainwright bangs out the 'Dies Irae' (Day of Wrath) as almost all composers do in requiem masses, but he can be restrained where others tend to be loud and enthusiastic (Sanctus) and visa versa. He shows no mercy for the solo soprano part, but Redpath astounded as she scaled the heights. In the end, Wainwright has created a latter-day bardo, the spiritual journey that follows death. The interruptions from Byron's poem brought chills in Fonda's mesmerizing reading, as the text follows the breakdown of humanity in the aftermath of environmental catastrophe. She made it feel like a requiem warning for us all. Once is not enough for 'Dream Requiem.' A recording of the premiere in Paris last year has been released, but it doesn't hold a candle to the live performance by the Master Chorale in Disney. 'Dream Requiem' will be presented by several co-commissioners in Europe, as well as for the Royal Ballet in London. Who will dare to dream big and be the first to stage 'Dream Requiem' as a double bill with 'Ainadamar'?
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Malaga's MAFF: Titles Capturing Lorca's Death, Immigration Horror, Drug Trade Collateral in Fest's Centerpiece Project Competition
Fernando Franco's 'Lorca,' Caru Alves de Souza's 'A City for Christine' and Diana Toucedo's 'To Live in a Shout' look like possible standouts at next week's 2025 Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (MAFF), one of Europe's principal forums for projects from Spain and Latin America seeking new partners and distribution. Also sparking good word of mouth are 'A Decorous Woman,' headlined by 'The Maid' star Catalina Saavedra, Fernando Tato's family drama 'Goodbye Berta,' Alvaro López Alba's 'Three Summer Days,' an intimate three-parter, and LGBTQ coming of age story 'Her Ocean.' More from Variety Malaga Competition Contender 'Jone, Batzuetan,' Unpacked by Director Sara Fantova, a New Talent to Track Malaga Festival Opening Film, Daniel Guzmán's 'The Redemption,' Swooped on by Film Factory (EXCLUSIVE) Mexico's Apapacho Films Boards LGBTQ+ Malaga Project 'Her Ocean' (EXCLUSIVE) The 25-title selection also boasts a notable line in buzzy genre movies from Latin America from young women directors: Paula Martel's Argentine teen Western 'First We Take Anillaco,' the Dominican Republic's 'Maguana Racing' from Maia Otero and Juliano Kunert and immigration horror tale 'The Tenants,' from Peru's María Paz Barragán. Nine of the features are directed by women: in an indication of the tenor of Spanish and Latin American filmmaking from emerging talent, near all address social malaise, from big city construction ('A City for Christine') to environmental ravagement ('Green Inferno'), Europe's openess to immigration ('To Live in a Shout'), drug trade collateral ('Goodbye, Berta'), fast eclipsed LGBT revolution ('The Queers Riot'), corruption ('Everything Must Go') and, intriguingly in 'The Espejos,' the limitations of Latin America's wars of independence. Above all, a significant clutch of movies focus on violence, in its manifold manifestations: its physical nightmare ('Lorca'), its endemic proliferation ('Forest Walk,' another genre movie), and violence as an act of resistance and 'part of the eternal cycle of deception in Latin American,' as 'First We Take Anillaco' director Paul Martel puts it. Below, a breakdown of nearly all the titles, where Variety has been able to access details: 'A City for Christine,' ('Uma cidade para Christine,' Caru Alves de Souza, Brazil) From Brazil's Alves de Souza, a Berlin Crystal Bear Winner for 'My Name is Baghdad' and one of Variety's Brazil: 10 Next Gen Talents to Track. A gender revenge drama which, in an original concept, also questions 'the logic of large urban centers, marked by exclusion and the commodification of spaces and human relationships,' as Alves de Souza puts it. Reuniting Alves de Souza with her career long producer Manjericão Filmes. 'A Decorous Woman,' ('Una Señorita de Buena Presencia,' Natalia Luque, Chile, France) Catalina Saavedra, who gave a tour de force performance in Sebastián Silva's 'The Maid,' plays 55-year-old hairdresser Marta María, aided surprisingly by a much younger female friend to come out of her shell. A dramedy, 'the film explores intergenerational bonds among women and their influence,' says Luque. 'Danger Crocodile,' ('Perigo Crocodilo,' Flavio Botelho, Brazil, Mexico) Set up at Botelho's Trailer Filmes, and marking his feature debut, plus Brazilian powerhouse Ventre Studio ('Godless John') and Mexico's El Caimán, a Mexico-set road movie as João, his marriage with his husband in crisis, sets off on the highways of Mexico with Lucía, who is carrying the couple's baby. A Frapa Prize best script winner at the 3rd Sur Frontera WIP Lab. 'The Espejos,' (Los hermanos Espejo,' José María Avilés, Ecuador, Sweden) Unspooling in Ecuador at a remote hacienda in 1808 as two revolutions clash: the emancipation of the oppressed; the other, oligarchic, looking for independence from Spain and greater power to rule. The two uprising meet, subverting everything. 'An open-ended question about the idea of revolution against colonial powers,' says co-writer producer Felipe Troya. 'Everything Must Go,' ('Que se acabe todo,' Moisés Sepúlveda, Chile, Spain, Mexico) María, 61, discovers some colleagues are scams clients. She whistle blows only to discover her bosses are also involved. A dark comedy co-written by Alicia Scherson and Moisés Sepúlveda, producer at Chile's Juntos Films of 'Immersion,' made in a longterm production alliance with Mexico's Whisky Content, with Spain's TV ON now boarding as well. 'First We Take Anillaco,' ('Primero tomamos Anillaco,' Paula Martel, Argentina, Chile, Brazil,Uruguay) One of the most-anticipated projects at MAFF, already a powerful four-way co-production written-directed by Paula Martel and a 'teenage western with Tarantino-like flair,' she says. Set in December 2001, amid a devastating crisis, Lali, 18, flees with fearless teenage guerrillas convinced that Carlos Menem is to blame for the country's collapse, determined to meet the former president in his lavish mansion in Anillaco and assassinate him. 'Forest Walk,' ('A Estirada,' Sérgio de Carvalho, Pedro von Krüger, Brazil) In pre-production, set for a September shoot, a survival thriller set in a violence-stricken Amazon, ravaged by climate change, as two young drug mules and a former guerrilla battle drug traffickers, natural threats and their inner demons. Saci Filmes, Com Domínio Filmes, Eita Pau Produções produce. 'The Gagá of La Ceja,' (Jeissy Trompiz, Dominican Republic, Venezuela) Set against the background of Gagá music, born in Haitian sugar cane plantations in the Dominican Republic and performed with drums, rattles, rustic trumpets and bamboo flutes, as dancers invoke Loas, protective spirits. The doc feature, from Trompiz, follows Pirulo, a percussionist, who attempts to restore harmony after his group's leader has ired the Laos, the protective spirits. 'Green Inferno,' ('Animal Lluvioso,' Laura Astorga, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Panama) Marina is an environmentalist defending her paradise. Fernando is a congressman who lost his sanity after his daughter died in a fire. Elena is a reporter who discovers the fire was intentional, the synopsis runs. Inspired by true events, A passion project for Astorga ('Red Princeses') now in advanced development after five years of research. 'Goodbye Berta,' ('Adeus, Berta,' Fernando Tato, Spain) Alicia is forced to return from Santiago, Galicia's capital, to look after sister Berta when she's expelled from a rehab center. A feature, expanding the short of the same name, which explores the collateral damage of Galicia's 1980s 'lost generation,' young victims of the region's drug trade boom, says producer Alba Gallego. 'Her Ocean,' ('El mar la mar,' Julián Amaru Estrada, Peru, Spain, Mexico) A standout at Sanfic Industria's 2022 Productoras Lab and now a three-way co-production beween Perú's Final Abierto, Spain's Solita Films and Mexico's Apapacho Films. The LGBTQ coming of age story turns on Ray, a teen fisherman who sets out in search of his mother in a Peruvian jungle city. 'Visually stunning, dynamic and dreamy, ' says producer María Paz Barragán. 'I'm Not Universal,' ('No Soy Universal,' Celia de Molina, Spain) Set up at Solita Films, headed by brothers César and and José Esteban Alenda, behind multiple Spanish and Latin American new auteurs. Here in the tale of a screenwriter who's told her script about women's taboos is not universal, the new talent is Spain's De Molina, an actress ('Kings of the Night') and writer-creator ('El Antivlog'). 'With a sharp comedic talent, Celia brings distinctive, gender-aware narratives to life,' says José Esteban Alenda. 'Lorca,' (aka 'Nightfall,' Fernando Franco, Spain) A project with a lot going for it: Written by Fernando Navarro ('Veronica,' 'Below Zero'), directed by always interesting auteur Fernando Franco, a San Sebastian and Goya winner for 'Wounded,' backed by La Terraza Films, producer of Spanish Oscar entry 'Saturn Return,' and a subject which haunts so many people. 'This is not a film about the last days of Lorca the poet's life. It's about the nightmare that Federico, the person, went through,' says producer Judit Climent Torras. 'Maguana Racing,' (Maia Otero, Juliano Kunert, ) At MAFF having scored the Dominica Republic's Fonprocine National Production Film Fund backing, a comedy starring Maia Otero ('My Uncle's Movie') written-directed by Otero and Kunert about a novice nun who, with Archangel Michael at her side, discovers God in illegal street racing. Otero and Kunert 'carry the pulse of a new Caribbean cinema that refuses to be categorized,' says producer Pablo Chea. 'The Queers Riot,' ('La Rebelión de las Raras,' Wincy Oyarce, Creas Films, Chile) The Málaga Festival Industry Zone winner from Wincy Oyarce, a Chilean LGBT pioneer, celebrated for 2008's 'Empaná de pino,' a horror film starring 'Hija de Perra,' and 2023 breakout doc-feature 'Tan Inmunda y Tan Feliz.' A fiction feature with doc elements, charting the first recorded homosexual demonstration in Santiago, Chile organized in April 1973 by a group of young boy sex workers. 'Pink Desert,' ('Desierto rosa,' Constanza Majluf-Baeza, Chile, Peru) 1970. A desert mining town, north Chile. Mariola, known in town as Mario, is invited by a theater company of transvestites, to travel to Lima. 'During the journey, Mariola begins to discover who she has always wanted to be. Returning to Chile, a new era of political and social change drives her to affirm her identity.' Written by Majluf-Baeza and Cannes Queer Palm winner Ignacio Juricic ('Lost Queens'). Rodrigo Díaz produces, as on 'A Decorous Woman,' with Peru's Mestizo Films having just boarded the project. 'Tenants,' ('Se buscan inquilinos,' María Paz Barragán, Peru, Spain) Barragán's second MAFF title, here as co-writer director-producer, an immigration horror feature, exploring class, racism and xenophobia but through genre, building to what looks like a chilling finale. Liked at Iberseries Platino Industria and Ventana Sur's Proyecta. Final Abierto, Spain's Batiak Films, behind Berlinale Fipresci winner 'The Human Hibernation,' and Elora Posthouse co-produce. 'Three Summer Days,' ('Tres días de verano,' Álvaro López Alba, Spain) From Nexus CreaFilms, flying high after first feature,'Deaf' snagged a 2025 Berlin Panorama Audience Award, 'Three Summer Days' has also been put through the ECAM Madrid Film School's Incubator, always a good sign. López Alba's debut feature captures a close-knit family of a father and two children, now unravelling, seen on three occasions 'Rashomon' style from their differing points of view. Magnética Cine co-produces, more partners to be announced. 'To Live in a Shout,' ('Querer Vivir un Grito,' Diana Toucedo, Spain) A gripping drama about Lola, a U.N. human rights activist whose life unravels when her Syrian friend Fariya disappears while attempting to enter Europe. Catalonia's Alba Sotorra and Galicia's Miramemira produce. Diana Toucedo ('Thirty Souls') directs with Estibaliz Urresola ('20,000 Species of Bees') now on board to co-write with her. A high-caliber talent package. 'The film raises pressing questions about our identity as Europeans in a time of growing uncertainty,' says Sotorra. 'The Tree of the Broken Shadow,' (Nicolás Baksht, Mexico) A doc-feature to be made entirely with film and photo archives, worked on by animators from Mexico's Lo Coloco Films detailing the hate crimes in producer Daniel Corkidi's family history: Grandmother Carmen's death at 21, victim of femicide; the execution of great-grandfather Gabriel, an anti-fascist double spy, in the Spanish Civil War; the disappearance of his great-great grandparents, both Jewish, in Stalin's Belarus. 'The Violinist,' (Ervin Han, Raúl García, TV ON Producciones, Robot Playground Media, Spain, Singapore) A co-production of large artistic ambition and narrative sweep, turning on two young violinists and lovers separated by Japan's WWII invasion of Malaya. Kai joins the Resistance, disappears. Fei, determined, spends the next 20 years performing throughout Southeast Asia in search of him. Directed by Singapore animation veteran Han and Raul Garcia, Annie-nominated for 'Everlasting Tales,' a 2D animated feature to track. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
