Ainadamar Mayflower Southampton Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Jane Warwick
The advertisement for this production of Ainadamar promised ‘a dazzling kaleidoscope of music, dance and theatre where flamenco meets opera through traditional Spanish singing and sumptuous operatic numbers, all interspersed with rhythmic, sonic and poetic outbursts. Ainadamar invites you to experience opera like never before!’ This was a good summary of the bold production from the Welsh National Opera seen at The Mayflower Theatre last night.
Ainadamar is a relatively new opera (premiered in 2003) by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov and is about the life and assassination of Spanish poet and play-write Fredrico Garcia Lorca. The Arabic word Ainadama means ‘Fountain of Tears’ and refers to the ancient well near Granada where Lorca, who was labelled a ‘homosexual socialist’ by the Falangist militia was murdered in 1936 during the Spanish civil war. The opera is in one act and is split into three parts or ‘images’ and looks at the life and death of Lorca through the memories of his muse, actor Margarita Xirgu who spent her career portraying the political martyr Mariana Pineda in a play written by Lorca. The opera is fundamentally about the fight for artistic freedom.
As I would expect from the WNO the singing was of the highest calibre and the three main roles Margarita Xirgu (played by Jaquelina Livieri), Frederico Garcia Lorca (a trousered role played by Hanna Hipp) and Nuria (played by Julieth Lozano Rolong) were all excellent and were complemented by the booming tones of the Falangist Ruiz Alonso (played by Alfredo Tejada).
The opera is sung in Spanish with clear English subtitles to aid comprehension. In fact, they were essential for this reviewer to understand an unfamiliar work!
The music and sound effects were complex and ranged from traditional Spanish flamenco and guitar pieces to electronic musical techniques and pre recorded audio recordings of water droplets and galloping bulls. The visual projections of Lorca’s poetry were powerful in themselves. Together with the interesting projection techniques onto a string curtain, these painted the backdrop for the three images of the opera and helped portray a variety of venues from a simple set.
In her debut as a Director, Deborah Colker brought all her skills as an award- winning choreographer (Rio 2016 Olympics ceremony, Cirque du Soleil) merging highly expressive flamenco dancing with traditional opera and modern electronics to create fascinating imagery and shifting moods.
The WNO were supported by their partners Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, Detroit Opera and The Metropolitan Opera in staging Ainadamar.
The accompanying colour programme was extremely informative and explained the background both to the composer Golijov and to the story of Ainadamar and the complex imagery involved in the opera. This gave a much better understanding of exactly what was going on, on stage and this reviewer would have benefitted in studying it in detail before seeing the production. In this way there would have been much greater understanding of the themes and ideas being explored in a complex storyline.
All in all, a very good production of an unfamiliar work.
The Mayflower is an excellent venue and a deservedly popular theatre. It is the largest theatre on the South coast with over 2300 seats and the circle seat I was in gave an excellent view of the stage. There is a well- stocked bar and the facility to bring your drinks into the auditorium, plus a range of ice-creams and sweets which are often an essential ingredient for a theatre show. There is good parking and a good selection of restaurants within easy reach of the theatre making it the ideal place for an enjoyable evening’s entertainment.
Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost from £17-£59.50
https://wno.org.uk/venue/mayflower-theatre
Welsh National Opera has other performances at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton from now until 25th November. For more information or to book tickets visit https://www.mayflower.org.uk/whats-on or call 02380 711811.
Address of the theatre 22-26 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1GE