The San Francisco premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, is to be staged by San Francisco Opera at the War Memorial Opera House as of this week. With a libretto by Nilo Cruz, this production by Mexican Director Lorena Maza stars mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack and baritone Alfredo Daza as 20th Century artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
The Company’s first Spanish-language opera is a co-commission between San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Fort Worth Opera, DePauw University, School of Music and with support from the University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts. The San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus (director John Keene) will be led by Detroit Opera’s Music Director, Roberto Kalb, making his San Francisco Opera debut.
The action of El último sueño de Frida y Diego takes place on El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) in the year 1957 – three years after Frida Kahlo’s death. Despite their stormy relationship, the muralist Diego Rivera, who is ailing and lonely, has one last wish – to see Frida once more, to ask for her forgiveness. She does indeed return to earth, even though she is loath to go back to a world where she experienced such pain. The pair enjoy one last opportunity to reunite and reconcile. El último sueño de Frida y Diego was premiered by San Diego Opera in October 2022.
‘El último sueño de Frida y Diego’ Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Although this opera is Gabriela Lena Frank’s first, the music of this Grammy Award-winning composer is regularly featured on the programs of leading orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra. Composer in Residence of the Philadelphia Orchestra, she has written new works for cellist Yo-Yo Ma, soprano Dawn Upshaw and conductors Marin Alsop and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and is founder of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music for emerging music-makers in Northern California.
Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz is well known for his stage works – which include his 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Anna in the Tropics, for which he also received a Tony nomination. A frequent collaborator with composers such as Gabriela Lena Frank and Jimmy Lopez, his works are performed across the US and internationally.
Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz’s ‘El último sueño de Frida y Diego’
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
The role of Frida Kahlo is taken by Argentine mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack – described by the Telegraph as “a purringly elegant BMW of a singer”. A former Merola Opera Program participant and San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, Mack made her Company debut as Lucienne in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt in 2008, followed by Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Rosmira in Handel’s Partenope, Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in three different seasons, and the title role in Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
In recent seasons, Ms Mack has made several important debuts including the Kitchen Boy in Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Metropolitan Opera, as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Rosmira in Partenope at Teatro Real, as Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Teatro de la Maestranza – also a role debut – and with the BBC Philharmonic as Béatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict. She also made her Carnegie Hall debut in a performance of Handel’s Serse with The English Concert. Daniela Mack will feature in San Francisco Opera’s Webby Award-winning video portrait series, In Song, filmed on location in Buenos Aires, and released this summer.
‘El último sueño de Frida y Diego’
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Mexican baritone Alfredo Daza created the role of Diego Rivera in the world premiere of El último sueño de Frida y Diego last October, following which The San Diego Union Tribune wrote of his “soulful restraint” in performing Frank’s music, describing his presentation as “deep and mournful, reflecting the artist’s regrets over his cruelty”. Having performed it with Los Angeles Opera as well, he returns in this role to San Francisco Opera, where he began his career as an Adler Fellow, having participated in the Merola Opera Program in 1997.
Other highlights of his appearances in San Francisco include those of Liberto in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, various roles in Sergei Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Schaunard in his La bohème, and as Silvano in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera. Recent and upcoming appearances include the roles of Enrico in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Barcelona’s Gran Theatre del Liceu, Zurga in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles at Dallas Opera and in the title role in Giordano’s Fedora in Las Palmas. Mr Daza is a frequent performer at the Berlin State Opera, having appeared in leading roles in works by Rossini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Gounod, Massenet and Puccini.
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
The cast also includes Chilean soprano Yaritza Véliz making her house debut as Catrina, the Keeper of the Dead, American countertenor Jake Ingbar as the young actor Leonardo, Mikayla Sager, Nikola Printz, Gabrielle Beteag, Moisés Salazar and Ricardo Lugo, wityh choreography by Colm Seery.
The creative team comprises set designer Jorge Ballina, costume designer Eloise Kazan and lighting designer Victor Zapatero.
El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego is sung in Spanish, with English and Spanish supertitles and will run for five performances at the War Memorial Opera House between June 13 and 30. Further information and tickets are available on the San Francisco Opera website.
The performance on Thursday, June 22, will be streamed live at 7.30 pm (PT), and will be available to watch on demand for 48 hours beginning on Friday, June 23, at 10.00 am (PT). For more information, visit sfopera.com/digital/Livestream.
Information sourced from:
San Francisco Opera program notes