Florencia en el Amazonas Will Be the First Spanish-Language Opera at the Met in a Century

In the early 1900s, a riverboat winds its way along the Amazon River, headed to Manaus, site of the legendary opera house in the jungle heart of Brazil. On board is a great diva, Florencia Grimaldi, ostensibly traveling (incognito) to an engagement at the theatre鈥攂ut really in desperate search of her long-lost lover Crist贸bal, a butterfly hunter who has disappeared in the rainforest.

Also on the boat are a middle-aged couple who bicker incessantly, a writer at work on a biography of the opera diva (whom she nevertheless fails to recognize), and a mysterious figure who seems to know everyone on board, among others. Along the journey, the writer Rosalba unaccountably drops her research notes into the river; the middle-aged husband falls overboard, seemingly to his death, until his wife鈥檚 unlikely cries of despair miraculously spare him; storms rage as nature makes her presence felt; and the threat of cholera lurks beneath the surface.

If all this sounds charmingly improbable in the manner of the great Colombian novelist Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez (in particular his classic romance Love in the Time of Cholera), it鈥檚 because the author鈥檚 singular literary style, the apex of magical realism, was an essential source of inspiration to composer Daniel Cat谩n as he wrote his seminal 1996 opera Florencia en el Amazonas.

The poignant and evocative Florencia has its long-awaited Metropolitan Opera premiere on November 16鈥攖he first Spanish-language opera at the Met in nearly 100 years and only the third in company history. It鈥檚 also the first opera at the Met by a Mexican composer, Cat谩n, whose librettist, Marcela Fuentes-Berain, also hails from Mexico City. Mexican American soprano Ailyn P茅rez, who grew up in Chicago the daughter of Mexican immigrants, stars in the title role, for which she gets to trade in the usual operatic Italian and French for the Spanish she speaks fluently. The set designer for Mary Zimmerman鈥檚 visual feast of a production is the Havana-born, Buenos Aires鈥搑eared Riccardo Hern谩ndez, in his Met debut. These key players, the language, and the Brazilian setting add up to an unprecedented Latin American cultural and artistic moment for the Met and for New York City.

It may come as a surprise, then, that Cat谩n, who died in 2011, cut his compositional teeth largely in the U.K. He left Mexico City as a teenager to study piano in London, where the lively music scene awakened him to the work of Mozart, Strauss, Beethoven, Wagner, and Stravinsky. In his 20s, he returned to Mexico, and in much the same way that his hero, Benjamin Britten, essentially created the notion of English opera as we consider it today, Cat谩n set to work on his first music-theater piece with the intention of giving birth to a distinctly Latin American strain of opera.

鈥淏ecause I had lived so many years in Britain and in Europe and in the States, I assimilated the operatic tradition of the West,鈥� Cat谩n told the Cincinnati Opera on the eve of Florencia鈥檚 performances there in 2008. 鈥淚 respect and love that tradition very deeply, but at the same time I wanted to reconnect with my own roots and not only write operas in Spanish, but to use a Spanish that evoked our whole culture鈥攐therwise, they would sound like translated operas. The works of great writers like Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez, Octavio Paz, Mario Vargas Llosa, all of these wonderful people that created a literary boom, who made their works important the world over鈥攖hey were a great inspiration to me to try and do the same thing in opera.鈥�

In an essay he wrote entitled 鈥淥n How I Found Florencia and Got to the Amazon,鈥� Cat谩n describes the 鈥渟eductive, glittering, mesmerizing鈥� music he was attempting to summon in Florencia. 鈥淚 discovered an African drum called a djembe that 鈥� can capture the crisp rhythms of the tropical rain as well as the deepest rumbles of a fearful storm. 鈥� I thought of the marimba, its luscious wooden sounds and the way they would combine with flutes, clarinets, and harp. The sonorities of these instruments seemed to me to capture the sound of the river, the way it changes its timbre as it flows, transforming everything in its path.

Griffin Massey and Mattia Olivieri in *Florencia en el Amazonas* at the Metropolitan Opera Ken Howard / Met Opera

Met Music Director Yannick N茅zet-S茅guin, who conducts the run of Florencia, is enamored of the 鈥渞ich, sumptuous harmonies鈥� Cat谩n crafted. 鈥淭he score is irresistible, from the melodies to the orchestration, and immediately brings the Latin American setting to mind,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople often say it reminds them of Puccini in the way the piece is just packed with emotion鈥� and that鈥檚 true. But whereas Puccini is a distinctly Italian kind of tear-jerker, there鈥檚 something mystical, and dreamy, in the way Cat谩n鈥檚 music grabs you that I think Met audiences will really respond to.鈥�

Florencia was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera, and the director of that original production was Francesca Zambello, current artistic director of Washington National Opera. In a program note, Zambello wrote of an unforgettable visit with Cat谩n and Fuentes-Berain to the Colombian compound of Garc铆a M谩rquez, who gave the team suggestions for an operatic story that Cat谩n hoped would evoke the marvelous spirit of the literary giant鈥檚 prose.

鈥淚t was not meant to be an adaptation of one of his works, but it was meant to be like his work in general,鈥� says Fuentes-Berain, who was a student of Garc铆a M谩rquez鈥檚. In her libretto, she wanted to capture the essence of what she prefers to call 鈥渕ythical realism,鈥� which she defines as 鈥渁ll the experiences that are not completely logical, but come from passion.鈥� The inspiration for the key element of the story came from Love in the Time of Cholera. 鈥淚 love the steamboats in that novel, and all the communications between cultures that can take place during this type of travel,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd then I thought it would be very interesting to focus on romantic couples and on love鈥攐ld love, new love, love at first sight, even love for nature.鈥� From there, she and Cat谩n set to work, with the specific goal of creating something simple and direct, something that would reach people鈥檚 emotions.

To give this ethereal story a striking onstage identity, the Met turned to director Zimmerman, widely praised for her theatrical flights of fancy. 鈥淚 wanted to put the emphasis on the landscape and the sky鈥攖he gorgeous setting of the Amazon鈥攎ore than on the little boat itself,鈥� Zimmerman says of the world she鈥檚 conjured with set designer Hern谩ndez and costume designer Ana Kuzmani膰, with whom she worked on the Met鈥檚 visually stunning 2021 production of Matthew Aucoin鈥檚 Eurydice. 鈥淎nother thing that鈥檚 present in the production is the flora and fauna of the Amazon, which is all exaggerated. There are exaggerated takes on water lilies, and there鈥檚 a heron and a hummingbird and butterflies. We have dancers and actors as those creatures, but we also have some puppet evocations as well.鈥�

Despite the magical-realist pedigree, Zimmerman sees in Florencia a dramaturgical connection to, of all things, Chekhov. 鈥淭here are these three sets of couples on the boat, and each is at a different stage of life, of love. And one of the couples is incomplete鈥攖hat鈥檚 Florencia, longing for her past lover,鈥� the director explains. 鈥淪he鈥檚 on a journey into her past and into her imagined future, what she鈥檚 dreaming could be, as she searches for Crist贸bal. It鈥檚 an examination that you have as you get older, where you look back over your life and you see the patterns, and you have your regrets. So even though the story is expressed in this large landscape with crazy animals and flowers and so forth, it鈥檚 really about the internal life and the imagination.鈥�

For the soprano who sings the title role, the demands of conveying a complicated emotional life while unleashing great outpourings of deluxe vocalism are considerable. But P茅rez is up for the challenge. She has had great successes on the Met stage as Mim矛 in La Boh猫me, Blanche in Dialogues des Carm茅lites, and Juliette in Rom茅o et Juliette, among other roles鈥攂ut with Florencia, it鈥檚 personal. 鈥淚 cannot tell you how meaningful it is for me to be singing in Spanish on the stage of the Met, and it鈥檚 a soulful honor to be in the first Met opera by a Mexican composer,鈥� the soprano says. 鈥淭hat alone is incredibly emotional. But it鈥檚 also this character鈥攖his woman, who鈥檚 an artist, who鈥檚 made such sacrifices for her art, and who鈥檚 trying to figure out how love and art fit together in her life. It鈥檚 overwhelmingly powerful.鈥�

Zimmerman agrees: 鈥淭he young, ardent journalist is saying, 鈥業 will never tie myself down to a man. I want to be like Florencia. She鈥檚 lived a free life.鈥� But when they finally speak seriously, Florencia says, 鈥楧o not make the mistake that I made. Do not turn away from love.鈥� Rosalba, the young person, says, 鈥楤ut being alone is what makes Florencia such a great singer.鈥� And Florencia says, 鈥楴o, it was my great love that made me such a great singer.鈥欌€�

This mingling of music and love comes to glorious fruition in an extended final aria of transformation, 鈥淓sc煤chame,鈥� or 鈥淗ear me,鈥� in which Florencia calls out to Crist贸bal in a thrilling set piece that concludes the opera. 鈥淚n the final aria, I think Florencia is, in a sense, performing for Crist贸bal鈥攐r just for herself. She鈥檚 singing her heart out, and there鈥檚 a kind of transformation that takes place, a metamorphosis of the singer through the transformational power of her own art,鈥� Zimmerman posits.

Cat谩n would agree. In his essay, he wrote, 鈥淎s Florencia sings her final aria, her voice, her song, and she herself, become intertwined with the image of a butterfly. She breaks through her cocoon and enters her finest moment; her voice soars, her song acquires transparent wings. Love and beauty metamorphose into one another and become indistinguishable from each other."