Magical realism makes coincidental back-to-back appearances at Lincoln Center, where the Metropolitan Opera presents Florencia en el Amazonas and the Mitzi Newhouse theater next door offers the music theater piece Gardens of Anuncia. I’m sure it’s coincidental — I can’t imagine the Met and Lincoln Center Theater could possibly be so coordinated as to have sat down together a few years ago to plot having two offerings where magical realism is a component. Still, it was striking seeing the two just a couple of nights apart.
Everything about opera composer Daniel Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas is just beautiful. The lush, romantic La Boheme-ish music composed roughly 30 years ago (yes, you’ll wonder what took the Met so long to bring it here from the Houston Grand Opera, where it premiered in 1996); the multi-purpose imaginative costumes which at times double as scenery (you’ll understand when you see it); the Chinese-lantern-ish fish and Gepetto-inspired puppets; and the delightfully eerie sets — the production is, well, beautiful on every level.
The opera is wonderfully sung and well acted. The story, as Riva pointed out, is no more absurd than most operas. Suffice it to say it takes place in the Amazon rainforest in the early 1900s with all of the action on a steamboat. A diva traveling incognito is en route to perform but more importantly to pursue her lover who previously disappeared in the jungle. There are a shipwreck, a dead passenger who returns to life, a manuscript that fell in the water that rains down from the sky, and a mystical character who appears in multiple guises as both human and animal. There you go. You’ve got it.
Sadly, for the Met there were many empty seats on Monday night. Happily for you, ththere are plenty of seats at the upcoming four performances; you may even be able to score $25 Met orchestra rush tickets, which are available starting at noon the day of performance. If you enjoy romantic opera you should go; and if you’ve never gone, as was the case for four young folks we met on the way out, this is a delightful introduction.
Michael John LaChiusa’s Gardens of Anuncia is a charming evening of musical theater, tender and sweet. The action split between Buenos Aires and the U.S. in the 1940s and ‘50s. “Charming” could be a backhanded compliment, and it’s not intended that way at all.
The redoubtable Priscilla Lopez (the original Diana Morales in A Chorus Line, who had a substantive career prior to that landmark role and continues to be active) plays Anuncia, a ballerina-turned-choreographer with a host of Broadway hits to her name. Based on the real-life story of Graciela Daniele, in the play Anuncia is about to collect a Lifetime Achievement award though she is heavy with grief over the loss of one of the key women who raised her, whose ashes are in a box she must bury in order to move forward.
There’s a talking deer and its brother, a magical-looking forest and a younger version of Anuncia played by Kalyn West who is sometimes with her in “real time.” Musically the final 20 minutes are the most directly Sondheim-esque (specifically Sunday In the Park With George). This is hardly blockbuster material, but the show works and makes for a wonderful night in the theater.
TDF members, note: As I write this, there are 18 performances in the month of December listed with tickets at $39. The Newhouse is a small theater, and there are no bad seats.
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