Almost a century later, there will be an opera sung in Spanish at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The theater located on Broadway will host Florence in the Amazon, an opera composed in 1996 by the Mexican composer Daniel Catán and inspired by the realism of Gabriel García Márquez, according to the official website.
The opera is about Florencia Grimaldi who will be played by the soprano of Mexican origin Aylin Pérez. The opera tells the story of the character, how she traveled by boat to Manaus (Brazil) at the beginning of the 20th century to perform in the city's opera and find her lover, who disappeared in the Amazon jungle.
In an interview with AFP, Director Mary Zimmerman, said it was "wonderful" that the Metropolitan Opera in New York is hosting "a new work that people don't know as well."
New York's Metropolitan Opera will stage a Spanish opera for first time in nearly a century.
"Florencia en el Amazonas" is a magical realist telling of an opera diva's journey to South America to find her long lost lover.
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Pérez will not be the only Hispanic performer in the cast. She will perform alongside Gabriella Reyes, originally from Nicaragua; Spanish mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera and Guatemalan tenor Mario Chang.
The last time the Metropolitan Opera in New York City staged an all-Spanish opera was in 1926 when The Brief Life by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla was performed.
