El ÚLTIMO SUEÑO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO at San Francisco Opera
Berkeley-born composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera, El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, became both the first Spanish-language opera ever performed at SF Opera and the first opera by a woman composer ever done there. That’s heady stuff indeed! You’d think that in writing a review of this opera, critics would take note of these facts. However, Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman never once even mentions these remarkable facts in his June 21 review.
With a libretto by Cuban-born writer Nilo Cruz, El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego) sets forth a fantasy around the tempestuous love affair of Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Interestingly, the opera takes place on November 2, 1957, on The Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos), three years after Frida Kahlo has died. As this opera opens, Diego Rivera, now aged and seriously ill himself, is seen at a cemetery where Mexican villagers gather to honor their departed loved ones. Diego longingly intones his hope that Frida will return to him on this day when the Mexican dead are popularly thought to return to visit their loved ones. El Último Sueño is conducted by Mexican Roberto Kalb, who is debuting here.
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