Last Updated on February 19, 2024
Florencia and the Machine
Florencia En El Amazonas (1996) is not a common opera to come across this side of the pond. Composer Daniel Catán was determined to introduce Latin American and Caribbean elements into Operatic music. Streamed as the third opera in The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series it’s part of their push to show more contemporary pieces.
The plot is unusual for an opera in that it doesn’t contain interesting characters or situations. The action takes place on an Amazonian riverboat transporting passengers to see the singer Florencia Grimaldi return from international success to sing back at her home town. Three couples and their struggles make up the entire action. Paula and Alvaro are a married couple who bicker nastily until Alvaro disappears and Paula realises that all their problems are her fault and she needs to change. Rosalba and Arcadio form a new love on the boat but are both too afraid of love until Rosalba learns that all she really needs is a man. Florencia is coupled with the memory of a butterfly catcher who inspired her singing voice with his love and to whom she is desperate to return.
That’s pretty much the whole plot, there’s no real overall arc or characters to invest in. It’s punctuated with a catastrophic boat crash with apparently no lasting consequences. A cholera outbreak leaves the main characters slightly disappointed they won’t see a singer perform but oddly unmoved by the river of coffins floating past. There are some dramatic moments for big solos but it’s a surprisingly banal and oddly sexist story to pick for a contemporary opera.
Given the plot has roughly the same grip strength as a greasy toddler, one would hope the Met provided a stunning production but last year’s fiscal losses appear to be taking their toll. In Mary Zimmerman’s production, there is just one backdrop for the majority of the story, a wavy jungle green wall which clashes unpleasantly against the royal blue plain flooring. The set is a series of small props and puppets which are dragged back and forth around the stage. It all feels a little bit am-dram but without the charm. Dance interludes provide a light comic relief at times but Ana Kuzmanić’s choreography can be frustratingly bland. A bird skipped on repeatedly and kept on doing the same uninteresting movements over and over again.
Daniel Catán’s music is cinematic, romantic and lush but mainly forgettable. There are no memorable melodies or inspiring harmonies, it sort of just floats past inconsequentially. Catán’s included nice touches like steel drums and deliberate orchestration of birds skipping around and the boat’s movements but these are just accents amidst a bland mush with no tunes. Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin did great work with making it sound bright and colourful but it seemed like he was making a second-rate score work twice as hard rather than finding the best in a gem.
The production was resurrected by strong performances from all the singers involved. The Spanish libretto works well. Similar vowel sounds and words which frequently end on strong vowel sounds make the vocal setting sound close to Italian, avoiding English or German awkwardness.
Ailyn Pérez played the diva Florencia Grimaldi, Pérez’s singing is remarkable, every phrase sounds like she is crafting shapes of sound out of thin air, giving it shape and feeling before releasing it and starting work on the next aural sculpture. Pérez never lacked for passion and added at least two dimensions to her character.
Mattia Olivieri as Riolobo sang with a rich tenor lushness but was let down by his character being the operatic equivalent of a talking parrot in a Disney Film. Good performances also from Gabriella Reyes as Rosalba, Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Paula, and Mario Chang as Arcadio.
Overall, the music feels polished but empty the plot feels entirely empty and the staging didn’t fill in any of the many blanks. The sound engineering also left the voices overly loud and out of balance. This was an uncharacteristically poor showing from the Met.
The next Met Live performance is Verdi’s Nabucco on the 6th of January.
Metropolitan Opera | In Cinemas (metopera.org)
