ARTS

A Brief night with a short life

By Jabbari Weekes To take a quote from Spanish opera, La vida breve, This girl here sings like a songbird. That rings true for opera singer, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, as she stands shrouded before the bright lights of Roy Thomson Hall singing the tragic tale of Salud. Composed by Manuel de Falla, La vida breve (The Short Life) tells the story of Salud, a gypsy who falls in love with a wealthy man already set to marry another woman. What follows is an unfortunate turn of events for the heartbroken Salud that ends in tragedy. The story is unique since it is one of the few operas written by a Spanish composer that also embraces its Spanish title as a stamp of pride. Laura Quinn, senior manager of public relations at Roy Thomson Hall explains, La vida breve is a unique production in that the cast were directfrom-Spain and that the vocalists, guitar and flamenco dancer, were all making their debuts. Mixing the rich sounds of the Toronto Symphony Opera with the flavour of Spanish guitars and more, there was a deep appreciation by all audience members for the culture. The script written completely in Spanish makes no compromises, as two large black screens with subtitles are the only means of translation for non-speakers. With a very small number of operas written and created in Spain for Herrera and her peers, its a real pleasure for them to celebrate the play for the night. According to her, many Spanish composers around 1913 and after were not familiar with the tradition of writing operas in comparison to places like Italy, Germany, and France. www.mariamariadaily.wordpress.com In Spain there wasnt a tradition of composing operas , there were very few in Spain in the earlier days that knew really how to write, there were very few, said Herrera. Popular tales that focus on Spanish characters like Carmen which tells the story of the seductive gypsy wooing a nave soldier from his lover are actually written by composers from other countries. Carmen was actually written by a French composer, Georges Bizet. For Quinn its not a question of the number of Spanish musicals but TSOs emphasis on a wide diversity of music for concert goers. It is difficult to count the number of Spanish-oriented productions, but the TSO performs works from across the orchestral music repertoire to attract music lovers of all types, said Quinn. However, with the rich history that entangles La Vida, Herrera believes Saluds story of love and betrayal is something we can all identify with. Especially Herrera said, A lot of people will understand Saluds story, because when you have suffered and put your whole life completely on the love of one person, the pain is so unbearable we suffer heartache and loss, it happens a lot if life it shouldnt but it does. In December, the Toronto symphony orchestra will perform Don Quixote, one of the most influential works of literature from Spain. Jabbari W/Maria Maria
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