Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s love letter to Mexican surrealist artist Frida Kahlo will be performed by Opera Orlando this January.
Opera Orlando will present Frida, a beautiful, yet unflinching musical portrait of the life of one of the world's most iconic artists. as part of its 2023-24 All for Art season On the MainStage this January.
Join Opera Orlando in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts as they present Frida, an operatic celebration featuring fierce characters, life-altering tragedy, and passionate love, set to an alluring and vibrant score, played masterfully by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.
Performances will take place on Friday, January 26 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 28 at 2 p.m.
No one was more “All for Art” than the incredible Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, and her life story takes Steinmetz Hall by storm this January as Opera Orlando presents Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s operatic celebration of the artist in Frida. This poetic and beautiful retelling of Frida’s life reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her experiences: her childhood during the Mexican Revolution; a devastating accident at age eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children; her tempestuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera and intermittent love affairs; her association with the Communist Party; her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture; and her dramatic love of spectacle.
Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s score, written for chamber orchestra, mixes mariachi-style orchestrations, classical opera, and hints of Mexican folk songs for an authentic, alluring musical reflection of Frida all played masterfully from the pit by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Argentinian maestro Jorge Parodi, who makes a return to the Company. Collaborating with maestro Parodi in developing this all-new production will be stage director John de los Santos making his Company debut. Opera Orlando welcomes back Mexican-American soprano Cecilia Violetta López to sing the iconic title role, and Venezuelan baritone Bernardo Bermudez makes his Company debut as Frida’s formidable husband Diego Rivera.
Full of life, full of death, full of wonder, full of pain: Frida is an operatic ride of the most satisfying sort—a sweeping tale of a woman who fulfills her most passionate desire and remains true to herself. Hardly any woman of the 20th century is as unique as Frida Kahlo, and hardly any work captures Frida’s spirit as completely as this opera’s intricate and proud portrait of the iconic Mexican artist’s life.
The cast also includes 2023-24 studio artists, members of the Opera Orlando chorus, and members of the Opera Orlando Youth Company. Frida will be sung in Spanish and English with Spanish and English supertitles and have a run time of approximately two hours and twenty minutes with one intermission.
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