Ainadamar in the Press
The Times
Crackling with energy.
★★★★★
Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar is that rarest of things: a 21st-century opera that has been genuinely successful, reaching two dozen productions worldwide since its 2003 premiere. Scottish Opera here adds to that number with Ainadamar’s first full UK staging, and it’s a triumph.
The Telegraph
Fine singing and dynamic dance make this tale of Federico Garcia Lorca’s death shine.
★★★★
This innovative revival of Osvaldo Golijov’s 2003 music-drama astutely enlists the considerable talents of choreographer Deborah Colker.
It is no conventional opera but rather a series of vivid tableaux, almost a dramatic song-cycle in shape and form, with constant references to the purest form of flamenco in the cante jondo of Andalusia. Golijov’s music is underpinned by the gritty, physical spirit of the dance, and it was a shrewd move on the part of Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures (who collaborated on this new staging) to entrust the direction to a choreographer.
Herald Scotland
★★★★★
Ainadamar (“Fountain of Tears”) is a powerful 80-minute immersion in the creative life and assassination during the Spanish Civil War of writer Federico Garcia Lorca, as recalled by his muse, actress Margarita Xirgu, to her student, Nuria.
Brazilian choreographer Colker, whose work with her own company sits alongside commissions from Cirque du Soleil and the Rio Olympics, has created a compact visual spectacle of movement and projection on a circular curtain that references a bullring as well as other arenas of brutality. A quartet of dancers with a startling range of professional experience are joined by an all-female chorus that moves as well as it sounds on a set by Jon Bauser of precision-engineered moveable platforms, all brilliantly lit by Paul Keogan.
In the pit the Orchestra of Scottish Opera is on magnificent form, delivering a remarkable range of musicality, more accomplished in the Latin rhythms of Golijov’s consistently attractive score than anyone might have predicted, with principal trumpet Paul Bosworth, and the onstage percussion and guitar of Stuart Semple and Ian Watt to the fore.
In the principal roles, Scottish Opera continues to demonstrate its deft hand in casting with three superb company debuts. For my money it was Samantha Hankey, in the trouser role as Lorca, whose astonishing mezzo range made her the star turn, her Mariana aria utterly exquisite. But others will surely single out Lauren Fagan’s equally commanding Margarita or the beautiful voice of Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano as Nuria, and it would be foolish to argue.
Read the full review here.
Scots Whay Hae
It was the perfect evening to be transported from the dreich streets of Glasgow to a simmering Spain, even if it was back to a time where Civil War defined a people and the country. Osvaldo Golijov's one-act opera Ainadamar was not one I was familiar with, but in safe in the hands of Scottish Opera I knew the night would be special. What followed was quite incredible.
…A compelling and intensified fusion of song, dance, music, film, and more, the audience were spellbound from start to finish. When live theatre is this good there are few, if any, experiences that can match it. Simply breathtaking.
Read the full review here.
The Scotsman
★★★★★
As our arts companies brace themselves for expected cuts, Scottish Opera bring us a spectacular hit, writes Ken Walton.
Fed up with the unending misery of divisive politics, grim economics and grey autumn weather? Then let Scottish Opera whisk you off to an exotic, if still troubled, world in this gritty, impassioned UK stage premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Anaidamar, co-presented with Opera Ventures.
It’s not the cheeriest of works, dealing with the life, death-by-execution and legacy of Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, expressed in traditionally-inspired song and dance, and through the eyes of his actress muse Margarita Xirgu and her pupil Nuria.
But in her first-ever opera direction, Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker and her crack mixed-media creative team extract gratifyingly colourful optimism. It’s a simultaneous hit on all the senses, combining the noble passions of opera with the instant-fix adrenalin of a West End musical.
Read the full review here.
The Spectator
A total (and often gripping) theatrical experience.
…There’s striking choreography without too much eye-flashing or castanet-snapping, and while your enjoyment of Golijov’s music (warmly played and tightly paced under the baton of Stuart Stratford) will depend upon your personal tolerance threshold for flamenco guitars and sultry trumpet solos, this production is about more than the music: it’s a total (and often gripping) theatrical experience. An opera, in other words. Golijov came on stage to take a bow. He looked thrilled.
Read the full review here.
Edinburgh Music Review
…It is not quite a traditional opera as we might expect, more a multi-media performance involving ballet, flamenco singing and dancing, news broadcasts, operatic arias, backdrop projection and great lighting and music. The good news is that it worked and Scottish Opera have created an opera which will bring it credit not only in Glasgow and Edinburgh but in Wales, Detroit and the Metropolitan Opera in New York where this coproduction will be seen. It is a sign that Scottish Opera, even if they have a limited budget, have broad ambitions in creating new work, as well as performing traditional favourites like ‘Carmen’, their next opera.
Read the full review here.
The Arts Desk
Flamenco meets opera in this stirring and sensuous production of Golijov's Lorca fantasia.
It is a ferocious mix of opera and flamenco in a production – a collaboration between Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures, and co-produced with Detroit Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and Welsh National Opera – which is both aurally and visually stunning throughout. The story is told through the eyes of Margarita Xirgu, an actor who had dedicated her career to portraying Mariana Pineda, the titular character of one of Lorca’s greatest plays, about a liberal heroine who is herself executed for her political beliefs.
…This is a powerful production of a powerful work: one which conveys the terrors of war with a potent majesty though by no means glorifies them. Instead it demonstrates by both telling and showing why art is of the utmost necessity to enable humans to learn from our past and seek to understand our future.
Read the full review here.