Opera Hispánica Announces 21/22 Season Featuring Nancy Herrera, Verónica Villarroel, Steven Blier & More

Opera Hispánica has announced its star-studded 2021/2022 season featuring new opera productions, an America premiere, several recitals, traditional and new repertoire, internationally renowned opera stars, fresh young artists, important collaborations and exciting venues.

Opera Hispánica is the premier opera company in the United States exclusively to celebrate and to promote opera and vocal works centered around the Latin American and Spanish experience. OH's mission is to empower Latin artists and develop our communities through groundbreaking cultural productions and musical content.

Opera Hispánica's 21/22 season will start on Thursday, November 4th, 2021 at 6 pm with a Kick-off Soirée at the Consulate of Argentina. Celebrating Astor Piazzolla's 100th anniversary of his birth, the event will present selections from Opera Hispánica's season. With performances headlined by bandoneón player Rodolfo Zanetti, baritone Gustavo Feulien, and pianist Jorge Parodi, it will feature selected guest artists from Opera Hispánica's season, and from Opera Hispánica Elenco (OH young artists development program). An exclusive event by invitation only for Opera Hispánica's Círculo of patrons, anyone can access it by becoming a supporting member of Opera Hispánica's mission.

The season continues on Saturday, November 13th at 7:30 PM with Cuando el Fuego Abrasa, a double-bill featuring Oblivion (a series of tangos by Piazzolla) and El Amor Brujo, with Spanish opera superstar, mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Argentinean baritone Gustavo Feulien, Latin Grammy's winning bandoneon player Rodolfo Zanetti, and Latin Grammy's winning bass player Pedro Giraudo. This double-bill will be conducted by OH General and Artistic Director, Argentinean conductor Jorge Parodi and directed by Argentinean stage director Malena Dayen, in a co-production with Teatro Grattacielo at the Ellen Stewart Theater (Creative Shares at La MaMa). Nancy Fabiola Herrera, the preeminent Spanish soprano from Canary Islands who recorded El Amor Brujo for Naxos, appears for the first time in a staged production of de Falla's masterpiece. The event is partially sponsored by the Consulate of Spain in New York.

The following event will be Buenos Aires, Then and Now, a tribute to the diverse musical culture of Buenos Aires, with music from its iconic masters (Guastavino, Ginastera, López Buchardo and Piazzolla) and its contemporary voices. This song recital will take place on Tuesday, February 15th at 8 PM at Merkin Hall, co-presented by Kaufman Music Center and New York Festival of Songs, created as a collaboration between New York Festival of Songs and Opera Hispánica, with the assistance of Jorge Parodi, featuring Brian James Myer and Raquel González, with Steven Blier as pianist and host.

Opera Hispánica is proud to present in late March a recital starring the great Chilean soprano Verónica Villarroel titled Y Volveré. The performance will feature boleros and songs from South America together with selections from the Canciones Españolas Antiguas by Federico Garcia Lorca, with guest appearances by Maribel Villarroel, Flamenco dancer Sonia Olla (who choreographed Madonna's Rebel Heart Tour Flamenco numbers) and cantaor Ismael Fernández. Including such songs as Armando Manzanero's Cuando estoy contigo, Lecuona's Siboney, Maria Grever's Muñequita linda, and Garcia Lorca's Las morillas de Jaén, the recital will be accompanied by a combo of guitar, piano, cello and percussion (date and location to be announced shortly).

Opera Hispánica closes its rich 21/22 season with the American premiere of Diego Sánchez Haase's Ñomongeta (Conversation), the first opera in Guarani, in collaboration with the Americas Society and presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of American Indian in Washington and in New York City. Ñomongeta, a moving opera for solo tenor who accompanies himself on musical instruments of the original people of Paraguay, describes an imaginary conversation between the protagonist and Christopher Columbus on the effect of colonization. Performed by the Paraguayan tenor Jose Mongelós, this new production opens at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington on Thursday, May 12 and repeats on Sunday May 15 at the Museum's George Gustav Heye Center in New York.

Members of the OH Círculo will have access to the Soirée at the Consulate of Argentina, reserved seats for Opera Hispánica's opera productions, and exclusive discounted prices for both song recitals.

For more information about Opera Hispánica's mission and upcoming season please visit www.operahispanica.org or write to info@operahispanica.org

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