More Music Theatre Than Opera ?

This disk is a recording of a new opera by Osvaldo Golijov titled Ainadamar. It is set in the time of the Spanish Civil War and tels of the friendship between the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and Margarita Xirgu and the murder of the former by Franco's men. The part of Xirgu dominates the action and is sung by Golijov's "muse", soprano Dawn Upshaw. Other parts are sung by Kelley O'Connor, Jessica Rivera, Jesus Montoya, Eduardo Chama, Sean Mayer, Robb Asklof, Anne-Carolyn Bird and Sindhu Chandrasekaran with support from the Women of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Robert Spano conducts the atlanta Symphony Orchestra but much of the musical content is also provided by Gonzalo Grau on latin percussion, Adam Del Monte on flamenco guitar, other guitar parts by William Kanensiger and Andrew York plus electronic sampling from Jeremy Flower and Gustavo Santaolalla. Golijov is touted in some quarters ( mainly in the US ) as the saviour of classical music and has therefore become somewhat controversial. I feel that claim is nonsense but also feel that his recent works are interesting and worthwhile pieces of music theatre. I would in fact prefer to use that term rather than opera, the latter term possibly only being applied for marketing purposes and because of the presence of Upshaw. But her singing is again far removed from the classical mainstream with her voice often being pushed into more theatrically dramatic folk and ethnic areas while retainig its' undoubted quality. The music has much guitar and trumpet colourings with obvious Spanish connotations and there is a powerful libretto concerning art, love, war and politics with the final fatal denouement softened by a closing call to liberty. Despite the serious content, rahter than being called an opera, I feel the contemporary music content places it more alongside that bastardised form the "rock opera" or even a 21st century successor to the works of Bernstein in music theatre. Further elements reminded me of John Adams's El Nino.