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FULL LA VORÁGINE (Ripper) Bogota 2024 Homero Velho, Eliana Piedrahita, Sara Bermúdez, Juan David González
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: LA VORÁGINE
- Composer: Ripper João Guilherme
- Libretto: João Guilherme Ripper based on the novel by José Eustasio Rivera Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Teatro Colón de Bogotá, Colombia
- Recorded: 2024
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Homero Velho, Eliana Piedrahita, Sara Bermúdez, Juan David González, Andrés Agudelo, Ana Mora, Valeriano Lanchas, César Gutiérrez, Manuel Franco, Thalita Azevedo, Humberto Sobrinho, Moisés Rodrigues
- Conductor: Luiz Fernando Malheiro
- Orchestra: ORQUESTA NUEVA FILARMONIA
- Chorus: CORO NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA
- Stage Director: Pedro Salazar
- Stage Designer: Julián Hoyos
- Costume Designer: Sandra Díaz
- Lighting Designer: Leonardo Murcia
Information about the Recording
- Published by: João Guilherme Ripper
- Date Published: 2025
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
La vorágine , which is a co-production with Colombia, had its world premiere in Bogotá
The opera has stage direction by Colombian Pedro Salazar and is conducted by maestro Luiz Fernando Malheiro, who is also the artistic director of the festival.
La vorágine , which can be translated as “the whirlwind”, is an adaptation of the novel by Colombian writer José Eustasio Rivera (1889-1928). The libretto, also written by Ripper, speaks of ambition, love, exploitation and violence in the Amazon, with henchmen, rubber tappers and indigenous people. The opera was commissioned from Ripper by the Centro Nacional de las Artes – Delia and La Compañia Estable, both institutions in Colombia, on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the first edition of the book, which is a classic of Colombian literature.
The opera, in three acts and sung in Spanish, tells the story of Arturo Cova and Alicia, lovers who flee Bogotá to escape an arranged marriage. Taking refuge in La Maporita, in the Casanare region, their relationship quickly deteriorates. Alicia is kidnapped by Narciso Barrera, an unscrupulous recruiter of workers for the rubber plantations, along with Griselda, a woman Arturo is enchanted by. Wounded and humiliated, Arturo sets off in pursuit of the kidnapper, accompanied by Fidel Franco. The journey reveals brutal abuses committed on the rubber plantations, including debt slavery. With the help of Clemente Silva, a grieving man carrying the bones of his son, Arturo reunites with Alicia, who is pregnant. In a final confrontation, Barrera is killed by the enslaved indigenous people. The reunion of the couples and the burial of Silva’s son mark the end of the opera.