On Stage: Lorca and Flamenco

“Spain is a bull burning alive.” (David Henry Hwang libretto.)

There are few artists who inspire a passion like Federico Garcia Lorca, whose writings reflect so much of the Spanish duende or soul. Those veins run deep through both pain and promise, something that is eloquently displayed in Quantum Theatre’s latest production, composer Olvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar.

Duende is most familiar in the song and dance of flamenco, which director Karla Boos smartly tapped as the wellspring of this Grammy Award-winning chamber opera. It is a vital part of Mr. Golijov’s deliriously intricate score, which also includes musical elements from gypsy, Jewish and operatic idioms, then periodically processes them electronically, along with the sounds of galloping horses and water.

However production instigator and conductor Andres Cladera wore the score like a second skin, skillfully molding the orchestra and its adjacent sounds around the story.

The events were not told by Lorca, but instead by his friend and long-time supporter, the great Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu. The audience sees her as she is dying, gathering her strength for one last performance of Lorca’s Maria Pineda in Uruguay in 1969. Lined up against the walls of the Spanish-style social hall at East Liberty Presbyterian Church, they watch as she reconstructs their time together before his death at the hands of the military.

Lorca, played by Racquel Winnica Young in an all-female cast, had a deep confidence and authority. But it was Katy Williams’ Margarita who had to shoulder the responsibility for the opera, railing at the chaos and vagaries of war as she came to grips with Lorca’s talent and the revolution that cut short his life. It was something she accepted with a complete emotional commitment and vocal skill.

She was aided by a quartet of young women who had to keep the surging drama afloat, led by Leah Edmondson Dyer, who had a clarity and sweep in her role as Nuria, Xirgu’s favorite student. Daphne Alderson, Lara Lynn Cottrill and Erica Olden took on various roles, where they each had a solo section, all handled adroitly, then almost magnetically returned to a creamy blend of their voices.

 

In a brilliant stroke, Ms. Boos expanded the flamenco accent by using longtime collaborator Carolina Loyola-Garcia. She choreographed her own flamenco phrases to suit Ms. Boos’ direction, whether with an all-out fervor or the sinuous poetry of the words. But it was her transformation into a Fascist military leader that truly surprised and where she channeled the throaty pangs of authentic flamenco song.

It was also a tribute to Ms. Boos’ direction that she was able to sustain the heat and fervor inherent in the production, right from the opening cacophony that assaulted the senses. She asked a lot from her audience in absorbing both an unfamiliar subject and its rich, but challenging score, all the while scanning the projected translations and character action.

And she didn’t back away from one of the evening’s most compelling scenes, where slides depicted the horrors of war — bodies lining the ground in historical photos that seem oddly familiar even today.

No doubt it would take another viewing (or more) to pierce the fabric of this important work. But still, in the end, Ainadamar was undeniably one of Quantum’s most memorable achievements.

Through Nov. 3 — check Listings.