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¡Viva la Revoluthión!

Nick Shelton May 1, 2012

 

 

This weekend I leave sunny southern Colorado to head out to, also sunny, southern California to prepare for Long Beach Opera (LBO)’s upcoming production of Osvaldo Golijov’s flamenco-infused contemporary opera, Ainadamar. This will be my second production with LBO and I am beyond excited to be a part of what is sure to be yet another musical and artistic triumph for this daring, unconventional opera company.

Golijov’s Ainadamar recounts the unjust execution of Spanish playwright and poet Federico Garcia Lorca in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. Lorca’s life and death are replayed through flashbacks by actress Margarita Xirgu, Lorca’s muse, dear friend, and greatest proponent. To put it simply, Ainadamar is a musical and cultural revelation. Golijov brings together authentic Spanish, Arabic, and Latin American musical traditions with his own striking brand of composition which just happens to have more than subtle hints of Baroque influence…which I was personally thrilled to hear!



I’ll be performing the role of, Falangist guard, Javier Jose Tripaldi who just happens to be a real historical character. Tripaldi was present at the execution of Lorca and played a sadly telling role in the process. Did I purposefully leave that extremely vague? You bet! If you’d like to know the rest of the story, come on out on May 20th @ 7pm or May 26th @ 8pm and experience Ainadamar in person!



Now that I’ve talked about all the business…some of you are probably still wondering what in the world is going on with the spelling of “Revolución” in the title. Well, as I was preparing for Tripaldi I learned something interesting about the pronunciation of the Spanish language in the various regions of Spain. As a 14 year resident of southern California I was feeling pretty confident about my ability to tackle an opera written in Spanish. However, that was before I ran into a little something called the Ceceo and its often-used misnomer, The Spanish Lisp. The main thing to know is that the ceceo is not a lisp at all. Outside of that, take a quick listen to this example of the ceceo at work! Below is the text that you’ll hear. If you have the time, listen to both speakers read the entire text; if not, a careful listen to each speaker reading the first phrase will be enough to do the job:

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El cazador de libros se sentía feliz al encontrar en una casa señorial de Zaragoza una colección de cien publicaciones científicas insólitas.

—Yo no veo ningún caballo —le dije a ella al llegar a la llanura lluviosa. Yo sé que viajar instruye mucho pero ayer en la calle de Nueva York, con el billete en el bolsillo, nunca me lo habría imaginado así.

Todos los tesoros oscuros de las islas estaban en la sala de subastas. En el primer lote había dos cisnes negros, unos sigilosos gatos de dimensiones gigantescas y tres muñecos enmascarados.

El boxeador extraño se exasperó al tomar el examen exigente en Extremadura. Se consideraba un excelente experto, pero a su parecer fueron muy ortodoxos y exudaron una exquisita inflexibilidad.

Veintinueve vacas hambrientas vuelven a comer hierba, mientras las abejas zumban por todas partes. Bebiendo un vaso de vino y sentado en un banco cercano, el hombre descubre la clave. Desde ahora sabe qué hacer en verano y en invierno también.



Click here for a reading in the Spanish of Sevilla (Spain)



Click here for a reading in the Spanish of Hermosillo (Mexico)





Hear the difference? Interesting, huh?