Described as “an opera in three images,” Ainadamar traces the life of Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca as recounted by his muse and longtime collaborator, actress Margarita Xirgu. Over the course of the opera, Margarita relates episodes from Lorca’s life—his persecution for his political sympathies and his homosexuality, her attempts to persuade him to flee the Spanish Civil War, his death at the hands of the fascist Falangists—and the opera’s tone and structure reflect much of his writing, combining crude realism with transcendent idealism and imbuing the everyday with a sense of mythic ritual.

Sung in Italian with Spanish with supertitles.

World premiere: Tanglewood, Lenox, 2003 (original version); The Santa Fe Opera, 2005 (revised version)