Frida and Diego: coming to life on the Day of the Dead
Folkloric and surreal, an operatic tale of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera “El último sueño de Frida y Diego” by Bondo Wyszpolski The glowing heat of an intense orange-and-blue set pervades “El último sueño de Frida y Diego” (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego), a two-act opera, in Spanish, by composer Gabriela Lena Frank and librettist Nilo Cruz. It’s a visual treat, and it’s being presented by LA Opera through Dec. 9 in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In recent years, painter Frida Kahlo has stepped away from the shadow of her muralist husband, Diego Rivera, to become the most famous Mexican, and Latin American, woman artist. Her colorful life, with its dark colors and light, tragedy and triumph, have turned out to be tailor-made for stories about her, and about Diego, long after her death. Julie Taymor made a feature film about her in 2002, and she was the subject of an earlier opera, “Frida” (1991), by Robert Xavier Rodgríguez, a smaller, more intimate work that had the benefit of being staged outdoors at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach (Long Beach Opera, 2017) and accompanied by a photography exhibition. “The Last Dream of Frida and Diego” is a co-production of San…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com