FULL Florencia en el Amazonas (Catán) Met 2023 Ailyn Pérez, Gabriella Reyes, Nancy Fabiola Herrera

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Florencia en el Amazonas  
• Composer: Catán Daniel  
• Libretto: Marcela Fuentes-Berain    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Metropolitan Opera, New York City  
• Recorded: December 9, 2023
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Ailyn Pérez, Gabriella Reyes, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Mario Chang, Michael Chioldi, Mattia Olivieri, Greer Grimsley
• Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin  
• Orchestra: Metropolitan Opera Orhestra  
• Chorus: Metropolitan Opera Chorus  
• Choreographer: Alex Sanchez  
• Stage Director: Mary Zimmerman   
• Stage Designer: Riccardo Hernández  
• Costume Designer: Ana Kuzmanić  
• Lighting Designer: T.J. Gerckens  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Met Live HD in Cinema  
• Date Published: 2023  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs  
• Video Recording from: Met OnDemand     FULL VIDEO
•  
• STREAM IT from Met OnDemand

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Florence in the Amazon is an opera in two acts composed by Daniel Catán .

It contains elements of magical realism in the style of Gabriel García Márquez and uses a libretto by Marcela Fuentes-Beráin , one of his students. The characters are inspired by García Márquez, but the story is not taken directly from any of his works. Florence on the Amazon was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera , Los Angeles Opera , and Seattle Opera , and had its world premiere in Houston on October 25, 1996 with a stage performance by Francesca Zambello . It was the first Spanish-language opera commissioned by one of the great opera houses in the United States . On October 18 and 19, 2003, the author premiered an orchestral suite from the opera with the Madison Symphony Orchestra .

Synopsis
Act I
On the dock of Leticia, Colombia, while vendors offer their exotic merchandise, the diva Florencia Grimaldi boards the “El Dorado” vaporetto incognito that will take her to Manaus. After a long absence from her Amazonian land, she returns to reopen the opera house in Brazil. The action takes place at the beginning of the last century in a time as abstract as the narrative of this song.

Ríolobo, a mythical creature, who is an intermediary between reality and the mystical world of the river, introduces us to the traveling characters who will attend the concert with enormous and different expectations.

Rosalba, a young writer, is finishing a book about the diva and hopes to interview her in person. On the trip she meets Arcadio, the Captain’s nephew, who has come to the conclusion that his life must change, because he wants to be a pilot: to live in the air and not in the water. Young people, inevitably, attract each other.

In turn, Paula and Álvaro go to the concert in Florence with the hope of rekindling a passion that has lost its luster as usual. The diva reveals, without the other travelers hearing, that she let herself be fooled by fame and, upon triumphing in Europe and at La Scala in Milan, she rejected her true origin: that Amazon where she hopes to find the love she lost a thousand years ago. out of selfishness. However, the Captain confesses that the legendary butterfly hunter, Cristóbal Ribeiro da Silva, has disappeared in the forest for years. Florencia suffers a blow to the soul when she thinks that her former lover has died. The curtain of the first act breaks a bloody storm that puts the survival of all the characters at risk.

Act II
In that scene of destruction, Florencia doubts whether she is alive or dead. She checks the first thing when she bleeds and, strengthened by the crimson, she vows to keep looking for Cristobal. Paula, in turn, desperate, announces that Álvaro fell into the river and was devoured by the current. At that moment, she realizes that her union with her partner is still on, she cannot conceive life without him. When everyone leaves him for dead, Álvaro appears confessing that it was Paula’s voice that guided him to find his way to the surface: hearing it from her saved his life.

Rosalba cries because her book disappeared in the storm. Florencia tries to console her and breaks her incognito character to open up to the young writer. The other travelers notice the diva’s presence: they have been looking for someone they had in front of them since the vaporetto set sail. Furthermore, Florencia’s words have helped the fear that Rosalba feels about her lack of love to subside like the storm and the writer gives her spirit to Arcadio. In a climactic moment of excitement, the Captain announces that Manaus is in sight. The travelers appear happy and, however, due to fate, they will not be able to disembark.

Florencia raises her song to summon Cristóbal’s presence and, in doing so, experiences a metamorphosis that transforms her into the Emerald Muse, that butterfly that, in life or death, her lover always sought.

Quoted from Wikipedia