ATinadamar (“Fountain of Tears”) is the title of the opera by Argentine-born composer Osvaldo Golijov that the Opéra de Montréal is performing on Saturday, March 18 at the Théâtre Maisonneuve. It is also the name of the place on the outskirts of Granada where the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca was executed in 1936 by fascist militiamen.
By digging a little, we see that Ainadamar is much more. Beyond a fountain, the Ainadamar is an irrigation channel (acequia) dating back to the XIe century, built by the Andalusians by order of the last king of the Zirid dynasty of Granada. This canal, this fountain of tears, allowed the development of the famous medieval quarter of Albaicín.
With Osvaldo Golijov, history and music come together. The heritage irrigates the new like a channel. “Golijov is not only modern and contemporary, he also respects and follows the musical tradition of the past. We have in the opera Ainadamar from the Gregorian in the vocal music, from the music of the Renaissance in the writing of the choirs, zests of baroque music, snippets of all the music that is in line with musical history, up to the music concrete, and lead under his fingers to a unique writing”, summarizes Nicole Payment, who will direct Ainadamar to Montreal.
three worlds
For the director of Opera Parallèle in San Francisco, Osvaldo Golijov thus adds an additional interest to the essential characteristics of a great opera of our time. “You can have contemporary operas that are not at all modern and very modern operas that are not contemporary. The operas that I prefer are those that combine the two elements: the modern, because the language is new and atypical, and the contemporary, in the sense that the work dramatically joins a contemporary sensibility. » In addition to these qualitiesAinadamaris, in his eyes, “a score in front of which we sit down and in which we see History unfold”.
Mixing styles is part of Golijov’s language. It also contributes to its complexity. “We really have three worlds: the traditional orchestra, the world of flamenco and a whole texture of concrete music. This makes three levels to manage in terms of sound. It’s quite complicated as music and it can intimidate conductors, ”judge Nicole Payment.
If we find in the “Fountain of Tears”, the irrigation canal, a metaphor for the cultivated and mixed music of Golijov, the drying up of this source has become inevitable in the existence of the composer born in Argentina. A real darling of the musical world of the 2000s, with The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (1994), The Pasion Segun San Marcos (2000), Ainadamar (2003, revised 2005), Ayre (2004), Azul (2006) for cello, Golijov has been emerging for two years from a real creative fallow period of 10 years accompanied by a deep depression.
In 2011, Golijov was accused of plagiarism for his work Siderus, in a debate that divided the community but left it speechless. Golijov had traced in part of Siderus a work by an accordionist named Michael Ward-Bergeman. The latter said, of course, that all this had been done with his consent, but on the one hand there were observers and composers considering that the history of music is nourished by borrowings (from Beethoven to Mozart, from Mahler to Verdi, etc.) and that Golijov transcended his borrowings into a new work with an individual language, and on the other, detractors insinuating that, Golijov not managing to respect the deadlines of his orders, he used a skilful a time-saving ploy and was really just a freeloader of musical ideas.
The outlet was a collection of melodies, Falling Out of Time (2019), composed for the Silk Road Ensemble of Yo-Yo Ma. With this resurrection of Golijov coincides a return of his great scores in the programs. Ainadamar was thus seen again in Scotland in November 2022, in a production co-produced by the Opera of Wales, the Detroit Opera and… the Metropolitan Opera, where we can therefore imagine seeing Ainadamar enter the directory in 2024-2025.
Beyond Lorca
The Golijov Opera House is built in flashbackwhere the pivot is Margarita Xirgu, muse of Federico García Lorca, who was the actress of his play Mariana Pineda (1927) and seen in exile in Montevideo. She reproaches herself, speaking of her friendship with Lorca to her pupil Nuria, for not having succeeded in convincing the poet to follow her and leave Spain at the time of the civil war. In a poignant scene, Lorca is arrested and shot by the Francoists near the Ainadamar fountain. The shots turn into a cavalcade.
Among the originalities of the opera, there is the fact that the role of Lorca is sung by a woman. This is not an enigma for Nicole Payment: “A mezzo voice in the bass, especially in the 21ste century, where we stop talking about genres. This voice: a man, a woman? It represents a human being, finally. Lorca becomes more than Lorca, he becomes the human being, in such a warm timbre. » Nicole Payment is delighted to see in these shows the countertenor Luigi Schifano incarnate Lorca, specifying that Golijov, who nevertheless registered here in the history of the “trousers” in the opera (Cherubino at Mozart, Octavian at Strauss) , had authorized this substitution.
According to the chef, the recent resurgence of interest in Ainadamar results from an attraction for “the hybrid side of opera, which brings together different styles of music”. “Opera companies are looking to find operas that will reach a new audience. “It is in his eyes the strength ofAinadamar. “When I conducted this opera in San Francisco in 2013, we sold out and could have gone on for several weeks. It is an opera that pleases without being easy. It’s like a good meal: there are so many things in this work that, even if you don’t like this or that element, there are dimensions to which you can cling that make you will love the work. Also, “there’s so much rhythm. The way flamenco music is integrated into classical music is great. Some spectators will like classical music because of their love for flamenco dancing. There are plenty of things to attract a very diverse audience.”
Nicole Payment stresses the importance of dance: “You absolutely need dance on stage, and flamenco must be integrated into the scenic and theatrical aspect, but also into the musical aspect. It’s something that our director Brian Staufenbiel does remarkably well. He uses the rhythm of the feet of this dance according to what is happening in the orchestra. We integrate flamenco dance [mouvements de pieds et claquements de mains] in the timbre of the orchestra. »
Thus, the chief thinks thatAinadamar really requires “a musical director” and is delighted with the work accomplished prior to the usual rehearsals by Brian Staufenbiel with the flamenco dancers and by herself with the OSM musicians. “I was able to do a first reading before the tour in the United States, whereas we usually start later. We have broken the ice. In particular, I met the percussionists for the flamenco percussion, then the guitars and then the orchestra, as well as the person who, on the keyboard, is going to pilot all the concrete music. »
For Nicole Payment, the challenge is to “find inspiration and bring out the colors so that in the end the work appears ageless, so that we don’t know in what period it was written, even if we know that we are in the 21ste century “. It would thus be necessary to transcend time, because “it is a universal work in its theme on the human condition”. “Because, even if we talk about Lorca, these are stories that repeat themselves”, says Nicole Payment.
History and timeless music… Moreover, if you look closely, there is much more than flamenco. There is a whole tribute to the Arab-Andalusian tradition of Granada, a union of all music, Christian, Sephardic, Arab. Who else but this Argentinian Jew, of Romanian mother and Ukrainian father, living in the United States, klezmer specialist and working at the crossroads of all cultures, could invent such a musical pot for us? Provided that he finds the same flame!