Chekhov's Mistress
Ainadamar “Fountain of Tears”
There is no composer who’s work gets me more excited than Osvaldo Golijov – seriously excited. His opera Ainadamar “Fountain of Tears” has finally been recorded by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Spano conducted Golijov’s work at the recent Lincoln Center festival and was totally intense, in my opinion, which is probably the best characterization you could give of someone leading a performance of Golijov’s work.
You literary types should know that this opera is about the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. From the liner notes (written by Alex Ross of “The New Yorker” and the blog, “The Rest is Noise”):
“Ainadamar means ‘fountain of tears’ in Arabic. It is the name of an ancient well near Granada, where, in August 1936, during the early stages of the Spanish Civil War, the poet Federico García Lorca was killed by Fascist Falangist forces. Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar is centered around the scene of the poet’s murder, but its main character is the Catalan tragedian Margarita Xirgu, who collaborated with Lorca on several of his plays. The story begins in Uruguay, in 1969, as Xirgu is about to perform the lead role in Lorca’s Mariana Pineda, the tale of a revolutionary martyr from another century. She is haunted by memo- ries of Lorca, by the thought that she might have saved him. By the end, she has surrendered to the strange beauty of fate, and she bequeathes her longing for freedom to her students. The opera ends as it began, with the prophetic Ballad of Mariana Pineda: ‘What a sad day it was in Granada. / The stones began to cry’.”
I might add that, after speculating about the fate of liner notes in the digital download days, I’m pleased to see an accompanying “Digital Booklet” with my iTunes download. The artwork in this booklet is beautiful, and although I probably wouldn’t print it out, it’s much larger than what you would get with a CD. Actually I only bought this on iTunes (normally I would buy the CD and download at a higher quality) because of the bonus “Listening Guide” that only comes with the iTunes version. Dems Apple fokes nose wut daze dewin. In the same way that it can be fun to read essays or studies of an authors work, or those overdub narrations by filmmakers on DVDs, this extra discussion, to my mind, is a welcome idea.
Anyway, this is something of a knee-jerk post, because I haven’t even listened to it entirely yet (and sadly, I didn’t go to the recent performance). What I’ve found so far is fantastic though and if you don’t mind shifting your notions about what classical music should sound like – I keep saying that with Golijov’s music - you might be pleasantly surprised. I’ve heard these beating dance rhythms and a touch of Flamenco so far and I’ve just started.
comments
As a member of the ladies’ chorus that recorded this, I hope you have as fantastic a time listening as we did performing. Osvaldo’s music is, to use one of his favorite words, amazing! Here’s a link to some photos of the performance and recording sessions:
– Carol Wyatt (05/23 at 11:52 PM)
Thanks, Carol - those photos look great - like you had a great time making Golijov’s music come to life.
– Bud Parr (05/24 at 12:16 AM)
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