Love Takes Flight: Catán's 'Florencia en el Amazonas' | Aria Code Podcast

Butterflies, a cholera outbreak and a steamship journey through the Amazon evoke the magical realism of novelist Gabriel Garcia Márquez in the lush opera "Florencia en el Amazonas" by Daniel Catán.
It’s the early 1900s, and the steamship El Dorado makes its way along the Amazon River towards Manaus, a city in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. Onboard is the world-famous opera singer Florencia Grimaldi. She’s got a gig at the opera house in Manaus, but that’s just a cover. She’s actually hoping for a reunion with her long-lost love, the butterfly catcher Cristóbal.
But on the journey, Florencia learns that Cristóbal went missing in the rainforest while in pursuit of a rare butterfly. From the deck of the ship - and now in quarantine due to a cholera outbreak - she delivers her final aria, calling out to him, the river and the rainforest that surround her: “Escúchame.” Hear me, listen to me. “From you my song was born,” she affirms - and in embracing her love for him, she is released and reborn.
Daniel Catán’s lush and lyrical score has become a staple of contemporary operas, and its staging marks the Metropolitan Opera’s first Spanish-language production in nearly 100 years. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests take us on a journey through natural wonder, transcendent love, and self-discovery.
Guests in this episode include:
Soprano Ailyn Pérez makes her Metropolitan Opera debut in her native language of Spanish as Florencia Grimaldi. She identifies with Florencia and the sacrifices that are sometimes necessary to pursue an artistic career.
Andrea Puente-Catán is a harpist, director of development at Ballet Hispánico, and the widow of “Florencia” composer Daniel Catán. She met Catán when she was 17 years old. Decades later, playing harp in that opera’s production at Palacia de Bellas Artes brought them back together.
Author, filmmaker and fearless traveler Alycin Hayes knows a thing or two about Amazonian adventures. When she was 21, she hitchhiked from her home in Canada to South America, where she met up with other roving internationals to paddle along the Amazon River in a dugout canoe. She describes her adventures in her recent memoir "Amazon Hitchhiker."
Paul Rosolie is conservationist, writer and wildlife filmmaker whose memoir “Mother of God” details his extensive work in the Amazon. He’s the founder and field director of Junglekeepers, a conservation outfit based in Peru, and he joins the show via a remote interview taped in the jungle.
Listen to full episodes of Aria Code Season 4 on RUclips: bit.ly/3QPYBeY
Or subscribe to Aria Code wherever you listen to podcasts and listen to earlier seasons: bit.ly/3sB43ds
Like this video and leave us a comment!
Discover more at www.wqxr.org
Follow WQXR on social!
• Instagram: / wqxr_classical
• Facebook: / wqxrclassical
• Twitter: / wqxr
• Threads: www.threads.ne...
Aria Code is a podcast that pulls back the curtain on some of the most famous arias in opera history, with insight from the biggest voices of our time, including Roberto Alagna, Diana Damrau, Sondra Radvanovsky and many others. Hosted by Grammy Award-winner and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Aria Code is produced in partnership with @metopera .
Each episode dives into one aria - a feature for a single singer - and explores how and why these brief musical moments have imprinted themselves in our collective consciousness and what it takes to stand on the Met stage and sing them.
Mark your calendar for upcoming events in The Greene Space: www.wqxr.org/e...

[@iantang2866]

Simply sublime! I went to hear it three times. I wish I could go to more. Hope it comes out in Bluray!