Thursday, October 2, 1997
Fantastic Voyage
OPERA: A riverboat full of passengers takes its real-world
problems into the enchanted Amazon rainforest in Daniel Catan’s
opera, "Florencia en el Amazonas"
By John Mangum
Daily Bruin Contributor
It’s difficult to stick a label on Daniel Catan’s "Florencia en
el Amazonas."
The opera, which will have its L.A. Opera premiere this Sunday,
could probably withstand a contrived genealogy finding its origins
in works like Mozart’s "Magic Flute" and Puccini’s "Tosca." But
that sort of complicated intellectual exercise would only highlight
the uniqueness of "Florencia."
"Florencia" is the first Spanish-language opera written for a
United States opera company, and it premiered in Houston last year.
The work, based on the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, sets a
realistic drama of human relationships on a riverboat headed deep
into the magically charged Amazon rain forest.
"If you read Marquez’s work, it’s set in an unknown South
American country, and it uses what’s become known as magic
realism," explains Andrew Morton, who directs the production for
its Los Angeles premiere. "What it means is that strange things go
on which are metaphors for the feelings and emotions which the
characters are experiencing.
"In the first act, a bickering couple are having a fight, and
they decide that they’re going to have it out and they throw their
wedding rings into a bottle, whereupon the river comes up in a
great wave as the husband threatens to throw the bottle overboard
and grabs it, and off it goes. You can see this and go, ‘Whoa,
that’s magic!’ In fact, it’s just telling us about their
relationship. It’s a metaphor for what they’re feeling."
Morton and Catan have made changes in the production that place
more focus on the work’s magic realism than there was in Houston.
The opera’s story relies on magic for its momentum, and characters
develop because of supernatural forces intervene.
"That kind of magical, fabulous fairy-tale story is what this
has that’s so moving," says mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzman, who
performs as Paula, one of the riverboat’s passengers. "Every single
character in this opera makes a 180 degree turn-around just when
you think there’s no way, there’s nothing that would happen that
would make them change."
Catan finds opera one of the most rewarding forms of expression,
both musically and artistically. The combination of stagecraft and
music allowed him to create rich characters for "Florencia" and
place them in arresting surroundings.
"I think that opera tries to unite two of the most fantastic
forms of expression that have been developed by mankind, the
portrait and music," the composer says. "The fusion of these two
things is not easy because both of these arts are very successful
at doing what they do in their own light, so I think the fusion has
to take place from the roots, and not simply by tying the branches
together because if that happens, there’s a danger of deforming
both arts."
Musically, Catan uses an unconventional orchestra in an attempt
to give a different profile to his music. The 45 musicians play
primarily wind and percussion instruments with a small band of
strings. This marks a shift away from the traditional,
string-dominated orchestra deployed for most works established in
the operatic repertoire.
"When thinking about the way I would capture the music of the
river, or the soul of the river, I decided to use a lot of wind
instruments and a lot of percussion instruments," Catan says. "It
seemed to me that those instruments would be the right instruments
to capture the flow of the river and the way it constantly changes
as it flows.
"You will hear a very different sound in the orchestration
because I did not use the harmonic cushion that normally is used
when composing for a body of strings."
"Florencia’s" originality as an opera doesn’t end there. As the
first Spanish-language opera written specifically for an American
theater, the work gave Catan the opportunity to work with his
native tongue, the language he loves. In this endeavor, he compares
himself to Benjamin Britten, who succeeded as an opera composer
setting English texts during the middle of this century. Britten
was the first Englishman to do so since Henry Purcell in the 17th
century.
"(Britten) has done for the English language what I am hoping,
or I am trying, to do for the Spanish language, in other words,
write a little corner of the repertoire in the language that I
absolutely adore."
Roderick Brydon, who conducts the Los Angeles premiere
underlines the connection between Britten and Catan.
"There is a very strong point of contact between Britten and
Catan," he says. "That is the passion that both of them share for
actually reaching out and making contact with an audience, and both
of them do this in a totally personal way."
OPERA: L.A. Opera presents Daniel Catan’s "Florencia en el
Amazonas" for seven performances Oct. 5-18. Tickets are $135-$24.
$20 student tickets available two hours prior to curtain, subject
to availability. For more info, call (213) 972-8001.L.A. Opera
Daniel Catan composed "Florencia en el Amazonas."