Opera Orlando Receives National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grant

Opera Orlando has been approved for a $10,000 (ten thousand dollar) Grants for Arts Projects award to support the Opera's 2023-24 season production of Frida to be presented in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Opera Orlando's project is among 1,251 projects across America totaling nearly $28.8 million in funding that were announced by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as part of its first round of fiscal year 2023 in the Grants for Arts Projects funding category.

"The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects in communities nationwide," said NEA chair Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D. "Projects such as this one with Opera Orlando strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy."

Opera Orlando's general director Gabriel Preisser commented "Opera Orlando has a commitment to presenting works that truly speak to our audience." He adds, "we have already been in talks with Casa de Mexico and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce about partnerships for and around this production, and I know that this work about the incredible Frida Kahlo will be one that our entire community can be a part of and enjoy."

Frida celebrates the life of Mexican-surrealist painter Frida Kahlo with music by Robert Xavier Rodriguez, conceived by and with a book by Hilary Blecher, and lyrics and monologues by Migdalia Cruz. Frida was commissioned by the American Music Theater Festival (now Prince Music Theater) and premiered in Philadelphia in 1991, starring Helen Schneider as Frida Kahlo. It was revised in 1993, and has subsequently been produced at American Repertory Theater (Boston), the Brooklyn Academy of Music, City Summer Opera (San Francisco), the Houston Grand Opera, the Vienna Schauspielhaus, in Recklinghausen and Nordhausen (Germany), and by the Society for New Music (Syracuse, New York).

Frida Kahlo painted 55 self-portraits, each one offering a revealing look at the artist at various points in her life. The opera is episodic, and captures the most poignant moments from Kahlo's life: her traffic accident at 18 that forever altered the course of her life, her political involvement, and her turbulent relationship with Diego Rivera and her sister Cristina.

Opera Orlando's production of Frida debuts on the MainStage in January 2024 at Steinmetz Hall. In addition to these performances, the Opera has planned a variety of lead-up events from September 2023 to opening night that includes a public school education component, production preview events, panel discussions, and other outreach events in partnership with the local Hispanic community centered around the opera Frida and Kahlo's incredible life and art.

For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

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