OUR OWN CHICANO ARTIST GRONK DESIGNED THE OPERA! GENIUS! L.A. OPERA SHOULD JUMP ON THIS! LOCAL BOY AND THE LATIN AMERICAN THEME! WIN, WIN SITUATION! N.Y. TIMES: Spain’s Conquest of America as Opera - By RAPHAEL MINDER - November 20, 2013 - “The Indian Queen” is a production of Teatro Real, the English National Opera in London and the Opera of Perm, Russia, where it had its premiere in September. It is due to be staged in London next year. It has taken Mr. Sellars about two decades to turn the idea of staging Purcell into a reality. As part of the collaboration, it is performed by Perm’s opera orchestra and chorus, who sing Purcell’s music in English, and are led by the Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis. Purcell died at 36, as he was working on “The Indian Queen,” after completing 50 minutes of the score. The adaptation by Mr. Sellars is three-and-a-half hours and combines the opera’s original music with several of Purcell’s religious anthems, as well as modern ballet and readings from Central American literature. The stage is adorned with colorful graffiti-like panels painted by Gronk, a Chicano artist who lives in Los Angeles, like Mr. Sellars. Mr. Sellars said he asked Gronk to “link Mayan markings and calligraphy with the street painting of our time, which is again a history and form of art that is under-represented and that the authorities are busy removing from our walls.” As a result, Gronk’s work “conveys the energy of the disappeared,” Mr. Sellars said. Mr. Sellars chose Purcell’s religious music, weaving it into the original score, to offset the fact that “the subject of Spain’s Conquista is usually treated only in a very materialistic way, all about how much gold was retrieved and how much territory was gained.” Instead, Mr. Sellars argued, “the spiritual questions are the more interesting aspects of the Conquista and the ones we should open ourselves to.” Like Bach, Mr. Sellars said, “Purcell gave us not just sacred music of affirmation and dogma but of searching, doubt and questioning, which lends itself perfectly to the Conquista theme.” nytimes/2013/11/21/arts/international/spains-conquest-of-america-as-opera.html?_r=0
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 21:46:28 +0000
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