Ainadamar!

 

Of all the opera that Scottish Opera is putting on in this, their 60th Anniversary Season, this is the one I was looking forward to most. I think I should be most excited about Puccini's  Il Trittico, which is what a lot of other people are obsessing about, but for me the exciting prospect was Ainadamar, nippily summed up by the marketing department as opera meets flamenco. 

Ainamadar translates as The Fountain of Tears and it is a relatively recent opera (2003) composed by the Argentinian born Osvaldo Golijov and takes as its subject the life and execution of Spain's great poet Federico Garcia Lorca. 

It's so hard to describe that I'm not even going to try. I'll just say that it was  about the most operatic thing I have ever seen in my life, and people can argue until the cows come home about whether it is actually an opera or not, I don't care. It was a seamless joining of incredible music and tense drama, with an amazing set, and production vibe, and just to add a cherry to the cake they had the fabulous Antonio Najarro, Spain's leading flamenco choreographer come and arrange the flamenco movement and dancing. I was totally entranced, in the true meaning of the word i.e. the theatre could have been falling down around me but as long as the stuff on the stage was continuing I wouldn't have noticed. If only we lived in Glasgow I would have gone to see it more than once, although I have to say that it would have been on my own as the OH was not a fan. He's in a minority, although not of one. I wouldn't say it was a marmite piece, since I haven't yet encountered anyone who actually hated it, but it isn't to everyone's taste. It was to mine though!!