Ainadamar

Ainadamar is the first opera by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov.

Music by Osvaldo Golijov (La Plata, 1960)
Libretto by David Henry Hwang, translated into Spanish by Osvaldo Golijov.
Opera in one act and three images.
Premiered at the Tanglewood Music Festival on August 10, 2003. Premiere of the revised version at the Santa Fe Opera, July 30, 2005.
New co-production with the Oviedo Opera, International Music and Dance Festival of Granada and International Festival of Santander.

CHARACTERS AND PERFORMERS

  • Margarita Xirgu: María Hinojosa.
  • Federico García Lorca: Marina Pardo.
  • Nuria: Elena Sancho-Pereg.
  • Ruiz Alonso: Alfredo Tejada.
  • José Tripaldi: Francisco Crespo.
  • A teacher: Pablo Gálvez.
  • A bullfighter: Marc Sala.
  • Musical direction: Corrado Rovaris.
  • Stage direction: Luis de Tavira.
  • Scenic and lighting design: Philippe Amand.
  • Costume design: María and Tolita Figueroa.
  • Choreography: Stella Arauzo.
  • Video projections: Julián de Tavira.

Ainadamar is the first opera by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov. Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the premiere took place at the Tanglewood Music Festival (Massachusetts) on August 10, 2003. After major revisions, the new version of the opera was presented at the Santa Fe Opera on July 30, 2005; at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago on June 14, 2006; and more recently, at the Boston Opera and the Opera House in Darmstadt, Germany, in November 2007. The libretto of the American writer David Henry Hwagn was translated into Spanish by Osvaldo Golijov. The title of the work refers to the Arabic name of a fountain near Alfacar, ten kilometers north-east of Granada. Also called “Fuente Grande”, the place where Federico García Lorca was shot on August 18, 1936, with Maestro Dioscorus Galindo and the banderilleros Francisco Galadí and Joaquín Arcollas. The opera recounts the friendship between Lorca and his muse, Margarita Xirgu. However, unlike the historical events, the events narrated in the libretto are told backwards chronologically. The Catalan actress recalls in Montevideo the days before the arrest and subsequent murder of Federico García Lorca in Granada.

This co-production of the Oviedo Opera, the International Festival of Santander and the International Music and Dance Festival of Granada premiered the work in Spain in 2011, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the assassination of the poet. It constitutes the Antonio Gades Company’s first participation in a production outside Gades’ repertoire and is choreographed by the company’s artistic director, Stella Arauzo. Arauzo worked in close collaboration with the Artistic Director of the Luis de Tavira Opera to create a ballet that reflects the emotional burden that the underlying theme produces in the collective consciousness.