OSVALDO GOLIJOV
AINADAMAR
THE FOUNTAIN OF TEARS
UK staged premiere

Theatre Royal Glasgow:
29 October, 2 & 5 November 2022 (Evenings, 7.15pm)

Festival Theatre Edinburgh:
8 , 10 & 12 November 2022 (Evenings, 7.15pm)

A new co-production with Opera Ventures, Detroit Opera, The Metropolitan Opera and Welsh National Opera

In his critically acclaimed opera, Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov creates a vibrant, poetic sound world combining opera with flamenco dance and song.

Ainadamar (the Spanish pronunciation of the Arabic name ‘Ayn al-Dam’, meaning ‘The Fountain of Tears’) brilliantly reimagines and explores the life and works of Federico García Lorca – playwright and poet – whose anti-fascist stance and open homosexuality led to his death in 1936 at the hands of Franco’s Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War.

'This 80-minute piece of music theater is a quiet spellbinder, an astonishing demonstration of how an opera can sound completely contemporary yet still convey its message in very potent lyrical song.'
— Peter G. Davis, New York Magazine

Love, loss, and death – opera’s favourite subjects – emerge through the memories of Margarita Xirgu (Lauren Fagan), muse and friend of Lorca (Samantha Hankey). As Margarita tells their story to her student Nuria (Julieth Lozano), Ainadamar becomes a modern passion play, looking ahead to Lorca’s legacy as an artistic martyr as well as reflecting on his life and works.

Olivier Award-winning choreographer and director Deborah Colker, known for her intensely physical dance work including with Cirque du Soleil, the 2016 Olympics Opening Ceremony, and her own Companhia de Dança, makes her hotly anticipated opera directorial debut. The new co-production continues Scottish Opera’s successful partnership with Opera Ventures (Breaking the Waves 2019, Greek 2017).

Timely and relevant, Ainadamar promises to be the Scottish premiere everyone will be talking about.

Kindly supported by Scottish Opera's New Commissions Circle and Sarah and Howard Solomon Foundation