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FLAMENCO GOES TO THE OPERA
        - Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar

By Christopher M. Wright
  © 2006 Christopher M. Wright
  All Rights Reserved

    Grammy Winner 2007 -
    Best Classical Contemporary Composition
    SAMPLE the music on Amazon

Hard to find good music these days? Here are some albums worth listening to. These recommendations are completely independent - AIM accepts no promotional fees or CDs whatsoever. The music rises or falls on its own merits. To be recommended, the music has to find its way into my collection and get played repeatedly. That rates an 'Honorable Mention' while 'Discovery', AIM's highest distinction, is reserved for those rare occasions when the music is among the best of its kind.

"What a sad day it was in Granada; the stones began to cry"

This is not your grandmother's opera. Musically, it is an 80-minute mélange of flamenco guitar, women's voices, ricocheting bullets, galloping horses, and laptop-driven sound design. The story is about Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca who was executed by Fascist soldiers early in the Spanish Civil War for being an enemy of Spain and a communist sympathizer. The execution perhaps took place at a well near Granada (Ainadamar - 'Fountain of Tears' in Arabic). There were two thousand more executions in Granada by the time the war ended.

The story is told through flashbacks from the perspective of a teacher reminiscing with her students at the end of her life in Latin America. The teacher, who had collaborated with Lorca and kept his work alive while it was banned in Spain, is haunted by her failure to persuade him to escape to Cuba, an especially ironic choice given what happened to freedom of artistic expression there later (see the movie Before Night Falls with Johnny Depp).

The Spanish Civil War perhaps resonated for composer Osvaldo Golijov, born and raised in Argentina, a country that has suffered enough disappearances and political turmoil to fill its own Guernica (Picasso's revolutionary canvas conveying life torn asunder in civil war Spain). The Boston Globe called Golijov "the most famous and successful composer of his generation." A Grammy-nominated MacArthur Fellow, Golijov was named Composer of the Year in 2006 by the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts. He teaches music at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. His career advanced through an association with the Kronos Quartet and his La Pasion segun San Marcos (St. Mark Passion) brought him international recognition.

Ainadamar is accessible and lyrical - no atonality here. Have no fear if you hate opera because it typically drones on for hours and you can't remember a single note. The overall feel of Ainadamar is more like a rock concept album than the Ring Cycle. The percussion and complex rhythms are an added treat.

Several observers have commented on the disparate musical influences in Ainadamar. Rumba, Jewish, and Arabic elements are among those most frequently mentioned. Golijov has mixed colors on his palette before. "I'm not worried if the origins of the music aren't mine," he told the Wall Street Journal. "After many years, I've figured out my new theory. Until the unfortunate time when composers started wanting to kill the past, composers always played with symbols. Tonal areas, for instance, had strong associations. E major stood for nobility. B-flat minor stood for death. Keys had meaning. From tragedy, C minor, you could move to paradise, E major. I do the same thing, but with cultures. From a rumba I modulate to flamenco. From a Greek lament to Der Rosenkavalier. As long as traditions are kept alive, music will be kept alive. And if I'm good, I'll contribute."

Dig a Little Deeper

© 2006 Christopher M. Wright
All Rights Reserved - This material may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten, redistributed, resold, or manipulated in any form.

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