Spectacular Spanish-language 'Fountain of Tears' is Detroit Opera's best production in years
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A seismic artistic presentation is taking place at Detroit Opera, where the explosive “Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar)” is running through Sunday, April 16.
The story of revolutionary poet Federico García Lorca and the legacy he leaves after his assassination is told through a gorgeous score by Osvaldo Golijov and a sensitive, Spanish-language libretto by David Henry Hwang. A novel breakthrough here is the interweaving of raw bursts of impassioned flamenco music and dancing that viscerally transport audiences to early 20th-century Spain.
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Soprano Gabriella Reyes delivers a masterful performance as acclaimed actress Margarita Xirgu, exuberant at first, and then roiling with grief. Her exquisite voice and impressively grounded acting are especially effective in the show’s final scenes as Xirgu grapples with Lorca’s untimely death.
Daniela Mack is pure charisma in the trouser role of Lorca, making it easy to see why others are so readily drawn into his orbit. Her first entrance is a marvel: A wild flamenco celebration breaks out at a bar, and then, like a cool breeze, like Redford on celluloid, like Gatsby on the dock, Mack materializes and commands attention. Together, Reyes and Mack burn up the stage with a chemistry that makes them feel like one intertwined performance instead of two working side by side, and they’re given a strong assist by beautiful work from Vanessa Vasquez as Nuria.
Guitarist Adam del Monte and cajón player Gonzalo Grau bring fire and flavor with their onstage work, particularly when supporting flamenco singer Alfredo Tejada in the role of Ruiz Alonso. Tejada’s powerful, raspy vocals provide lightning bolt energy at crucial moments. Flamenco dancer Isaac Tovar, choreographed by Antonio Najarro, carries that same earthy gravitas and delivers some of the production’s peak moments.
Perhaps the greatest praise must be reserved for conductor Paolo Bortolameolli for weaving them all together like flowing water, along with the Detroit Opera Orchestra, whose stabbing clarinets, boasting trumpets and swooning violins bring every moment to life. The moment when Lorca is killed spins the sound of a single gunshot into a techno-flamenco breakdown that is simply stunning to witness.
Curiously, though the opera clips by quickly at one hour and 20 minutes, it seems to reach an ending four or five different times, until it's no longer clear when the curtain will fall.
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However, at every turn, there’s a feast for the eyes and ears: A troupe of dancers whirling with glee, Mack and Reyes doing a sleek tango, the onstage chorus wailing in anguish and furiously tearing the set apart. And speaking of the set, Jon Bausor’s minimalist creation does some heavy lifting, with a single ringed curtain serving as a projection screen, a silvery forest for playful flirting and a heavy burden to drag in mourning. Paul Keogan’s lighting combines with it to heighten drama with bold splashes of color and one jaw-drop moment when the stage appears to be filled with fireflies.
This is opera going for broke.
Director Deborah Colker balances “Fountain’s” bigger-than-life backdrop by zooming in on real and intimate emotion, and in doing so delivers Detroit Opera’s finest show of the last few seasons. At curtain call for the Friday, April 14 performance, the audience cheers and screams were almost deafening.
At one point, a character sings of "the fever of a theater that transforms lives." That is what Detroit Opera has accomplished with "Fountain of Tears." This production will travel to New York's Metropolitan Opera during the 2024-25 season. It is spectacular and should not be missed.
There is one remaining performance at home in Detroit: at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 16.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Fountain of Tears' (Ainadamar) is Detroit Opera's best production in years
