Osvaldo Golijov : Ainadamar (The Fountain of Tears) - Dawn Upshaw, Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Osvaldo Golijov

Ainadamar (The Fountain of Tears)

Dawn Upshaw

Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Women of the Atlanta Symphony Chorus
World Premiere Recording
Atlanta Symphony Hall, November 2005

Dawn Upshaw : Margarita Xirgu Kelley O'Connor : Federico Garcia Lorcan Jessica Rivera : Nuria Jesus Montoya : Ruiz Alonso Eduardo Chama : Jose Tripadi ( Guard) Sean Mayer : A Teacher Robb Asklof : A Bullfighter Voices of the fountain : AnneCarolyn Bird Sindhu Chandrasekara. Women of the Atlanta Symphony Chorus Norman Mackenzie : Chorus Director Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Robert Spano

GrammyAwards 2006

Best Classical Contemporary Composition

Best Opera Recording

01. Preludio de Agua y Caballo [02:42.36] 02. Primera Imagen : 'Mariana' : Balada [04:46.61] 03. Mariana, tus ojos [08:16.39] 04. Bar Albor de Madrid [02:42.53] 05. Desde mi ventana (Aria a la estatua de Mariana) [07:26.39] 06. Muerte a Caballo [00:51.35] 07. Segunda Imagen : 'Frederico' - Balada [01:43.05] 08. Quiero arrancarme los ojos [03:55.33] 09. A la Habana [03:27.65] 10. Quiero cantar entre las explosiones [05:19.34] 11. Arresto [04:34.32] 12. La Fuente de las Lαgrimas [02:06.42] 13. Confesiσn [08:34.04] 14. Interludio de Balazos y Lamento por la Muerte de Federico [01:20.35] 15. Tercera Imagen : 'Margarita' - Balada [02:47.36] 16. De mi fuente tu emerges [02:32.58] 17. Tome su mano [01:42.43] 18. Crepusculo delirante [03:39.69] 19. Doy mi sangre [04:08.27] 20. Yo soy la libertad [07:38.04]

Gramophone Editors' Choice: September 2006

Gramophone Music Magazine : September 2006:

Classics Today : Joseph Stevenson

Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov is equally likely to use elements from classical, ethnic, or popular sources in his music. His opera Ainadamar fuses Spanish, Flamenco, Broadway, and classical elements seamlessly into a passionate 80-minute recollection of the death of Spanish Republican poet Federico Garcia Lorca and the life of actress Margarita Xirgu. (Ainadamar is the name of a famous fountain where García Lorca's assassination took place.) Xirgu was important in keeping Garcia Lorca's dramatic works alive in Latin America during the decades they were banned in Franco's Spain. In this 2005 revision of the opera (in which Golijov and librettist David Henry Hwang tightened the dramatic structure on advice from producer Peter Sellars) Xirgu waits in the wings of Montevideo's El Teatro Solís to perform the lead in Garcia Lorca's drama Mariana Pineda, Xirgu's most famous role. In conversation with her brilliant student Nuria, Xirgu begins mentally reliving the assassination and the days leading up to it. In the third of the opera's three "images", Xirgu dies, during a vision of reunion with Garcia Lorca. Nuria takes up Xirgu's--and Lorca's--legacy. A chorus representing the actors onstage sings the ballad of Mariana Pineda to folk music quoted by Lorca himself. Xirgu's music tends to be operatic, though heavily tinged with Hispanic elements. Nuria's music is more popular, edging toward Broadway. Ruiz, the assassin, sings melodic lines that have a strong accent of the "deep song" of Flamenco. In addition, there are creative uses of pre-taped sounds: Gurgling waters and galloping horses' hooves open and close the opera, while at the middle the underscoring of the horrific firing squad scene includes Falangist radio broadcasts and loops of rifle shots. The terse dramatic structure and the use of passionate strains of Spanish music make for a compelling listening experience, after which you're sure that the opera must be overwhelming on stage. Conductor Robert Spano's direction is incisive. All the supporting cast and chorus singers, as well as the players in the small orchestra, are first rate. But the star of the production is soprano Dawn Upshaw. Her performances in this role demolish her prior image as a cool, detached art song recitalist. This recording is close to mandatory listening for anyone interested in the evolving path of opera, as well as for those vocal music collectors interested in documenting pivotal roles in leading singers' careers.

BBC music magazine : Robert Maycock - August 2006

Performance : ****

Sound : *****

The Fountain of Tears, as the title translates, is where Federico Garcia Lorca was shot by Spanish Nationalists. David Henry Hwang's libretto has his death imagined by the actress Margarita Xirgu, who in turn had created Lorca's role of Mariana Pineda, the 19th-century activist killed for withholding the names of revolutionaries. Its flashbacks, layers and cross-references make a fitting match for Osvaldo Golijov's vivid use of the same devices in music. In many ways Ainadamar is less an opera than a Passion: the scenes are short, centering on a martyrdom and ending with the passing on of a spirit; and while the music is wholeheartedly emotional and sometimes vigorous, it tends to meditation more than action. It reaches out to flamenco, and Latin American sources and their Baroque origins, while taking nourishment from Middle Eastern roots. Ainadamar has enjoyed success on stage but here proves a real 'opera of the imagination'. It is dazzlingly presented: guitars and percussion, Jesús Montoya's flamenco improvisations and Kelley O'Connor's startling low mezzo as the poet, Dawn Upshaw's brilliance and tonal generosity as Xirgu, all rest on glowing orchestral colours and cunning production.

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