Night at the opera.IT'S ALREADY been a book and a movie that garnered an Oscar nomination for Javier Bardem (above), but now the life of gay Cuban emigre poet Reinaldo Arenas Reinaldo Arenas (July 16, 1943 – December 7, 1990) was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright who despite his early sympathy for the 1959 revolution, grew critical of and then rebelled against the Cuban government. is an opera. Excerpts from the two-act Before Night Falls Before Night Falls (ISBN 1-852-42808-2) is the 1992 autobiography of gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, describing his life in Cuba, his time in prison, and his ultimate escape to the United States. will be staged by American Opera Projects as a concert reading on May 2-3 at New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of City's Lincoln Center Lincoln Center New York’s modern theater complex. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1586] See : Theater Institute, so The Buzz caught up with Cuban-born composer and colibrettist Jorge Martin to find out why he married arias to Arenas. "After I first read Before Night Falls, I thought that the character of Reinaldo was immensely strong, the kind of character that opera thrives on," noted Martin, adding that the legendary author was one "who could sing of great emotions and desires for personal, sexual, artistic, and political freedom. It occurred to me that the smuggle smug·gle v. smug·gled, smug·gling, smug·gles v.tr. 1. To import or export without paying lawful customs charges or duties. 2. To bring in or take out illicitly or by stealth. for freedom has been one of the great themes of opera." While Arenas died in the '90s of AIDS-related complications, Martin notes that his protagonist's straggles remain relevant to contemporary audiences: "The idea that the individual must fight for his right to express himself freely in his personal, sexual, and artistic life seems to me especially appropriate today." |
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