Still technically Christmas, so this nativity opera is relevant! Well, maybe. It's actually not notably Christmasy. Whevs. But you know what's really exciting? I'm pretty sure this is my first opera with a tilde in the title. What a landmark!
Wikipedia calls this an "opera-oratorio," which sounds about right. It's broadly about the birth of Christ and events surrounding it, but it doesn't really have a plot, per se. It consists of various loosely-related texts set to music--some of them in Spanish, hence the title. Don't expect a narrative, and certainly, don't expect the production to help in that regard--it's by Peter Sellars (who also wrote parts of the libretto), whose work tends to be on the inscrutable side--lots of abstract video footage and whatnot. And so do Adams' operas, come to think of it, at least in part. Certainly Doctor Atomic and The Death of Klinghoffer. And ARGH, every time I think of Klinghoffer I think of the Met caving to the gibbering idiot hordes who were enraged about the planned HD performance. FUCK those troglodytes. ARGH.
Well, that's neither here nor there. I would prefer my operas to have a bit more plot, but I really can't argue with the music here. It's pretty rad, especially (for whatever reason) in the first act, and it kind of makes me want to revisit Adams' other works--it sounds goofy to say this, but I saw them kind of early in in my journey, and I feel like I've gotten better at watching opera since then. So that's something to think about.
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