Video: John de los Santos on Opera Orlando's FRIDA

Watch as John de los Santos talks about bringing Frida to Opera Orlando. Opera Orlando continues its 2023-24 All for Art season On the MainStage this January with Frida, Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s love letter to Mexican surrealist artist Frida Kahlo.

Join Opera Orlando in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts as the Company presents an operatic celebration of this iconic artist full of fierce characters, life-altering tragedy, and passionate love, set to an alluring and vibrant score.

The opera will be performed Friday, January 26 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 28 at 2 p.m.

Frida premiered in 1991 and is a poetic retelling of Frida Kahlo’s life that reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality. The opera’s spectacle of art and music sheds lights on Kahlo’s experiences, including her childhood during the Mexican Revolution, the devastating accident that left her crippled and barren, her marriage to muralist Diego Rivera and intermittent love affairs, her association with the Communist Party, and her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture. Frida Kahlo lived life on an operatic scale. She lived for art. 

Mexican-American soprano Cecilia Violetta López is a Company favorite having previously performed the role of Mimi in La bohème, Violetta in La traviata, singing in the Opera’s Summer Concert Series, and performing in the Pulse commemorative concert One Voice Orlando. Playing opposite Ms. López as Diego Rivera will be Venezuelan-American baritone Bernardo Bermudez, making his Company debut by reprising this role that he has previously sung with both Long Beach Opera and Anchorage Opera. The cast will also include members of Opera Orlando’s 2023-24 Studio Artists program and members of the Opera Orlando Youth Company.

Internationally acclaimed Argentinian conductor Jorge Parodi leads the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra for this production having previously worked with them for Opera Orlando’s productions of Die Fledermaus and The Tales of Hoffmann. Reviewed as having “the most expressive hands since Stokowski’s” by the Daily News, Maestro Parodi has worked extensively in North America, Latin America, and Asia. Collaborating with Maestro Parodi in developing this all-new production will be stage director and choreographer John de los Santos, making his Company debut. Mr. de los Santos is known for his “polish and panache” in taking new and classic opera to the next level. He has been called a “brilliant combination of literary insight and choreographic creativity,” making him a natural fit to direct this work. 

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