Orchestra of New Spain presents Sebastian Durón: Love Conquers Impossible Love

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Photo courtesy of Orchestra of New Spain

The Spanish court from which the zarzuela comes attracted the best European composers and admired both Italian and French trends, but it did not copy them. It adapted the new operatic genre to its taste. One of the adaptations was to cut down the relentless sung dialogues (recitativo), accompanied by a harpsichord, except before a sung poem (aria) and replace them with speech. The audiences admired the long declamations and soliloquies which pause the action. And they liked the parallel plots with comic characters, traditional even in tragedy, much like Elizabethan drama.

This seasons's production, Love Conquers Impossible Love, contains all these elements into which is woven the little-known story of Danae, the Greek goddess of music and poetry, with a surprise ending. It was foretold that Danae, childless, would never have a son but would have a daughter whose son would kill Danae's father, King Acrisius of Argos. To avoid this, the King had Danae imprisoned in a tower from which there could be no escape unless it rained gold. Jupiter, having seen and been smitten by the beauty of Danae, plotted to save her from this prison. The denouement of the story is in the spectacular final scene of the opera. Sung in Spanish, dialogue in English.

The Spanish court from which the zarzuela comes attracted the best European composers and admired both Italian and French trends, but it did not copy them. It adapted the new operatic genre to its taste. One of the adaptations was to cut down the relentless sung dialogues (recitativo), accompanied by a harpsichord, except before a sung poem (aria) and replace them with speech. The audiences admired the long declamations and soliloquies which pause the action. And they liked the parallel plots with comic characters, traditional even in tragedy, much like Elizabethan drama.

This seasons's production, Love Conquers Impossible Love, contains all these elements into which is woven the little-known story of Danae, the Greek goddess of music and poetry, with a surprise ending. It was foretold that Danae, childless, would never have a son but would have a daughter whose son would kill Danae's father, King Acrisius of Argos. To avoid this, the King had Danae imprisoned in a tower from which there could be no escape unless it rained gold. Jupiter, having seen and been smitten by the beauty of Danae, plotted to save her from this prison. The denouement of the story is in the spectacular final scene of the opera. Sung in Spanish, dialogue in English.

The Spanish court from which the zarzuela comes attracted the best European composers and admired both Italian and French trends, but it did not copy them. It adapted the new operatic genre to its taste. One of the adaptations was to cut down the relentless sung dialogues (recitativo), accompanied by a harpsichord, except before a sung poem (aria) and replace them with speech. The audiences admired the long declamations and soliloquies which pause the action. And they liked the parallel plots with comic characters, traditional even in tragedy, much like Elizabethan drama.

This seasons's production, Love Conquers Impossible Love, contains all these elements into which is woven the little-known story of Danae, the Greek goddess of music and poetry, with a surprise ending. It was foretold that Danae, childless, would never have a son but would have a daughter whose son would kill Danae's father, King Acrisius of Argos. To avoid this, the King had Danae imprisoned in a tower from which there could be no escape unless it rained gold. Jupiter, having seen and been smitten by the beauty of Danae, plotted to save her from this prison. The denouement of the story is in the spectacular final scene of the opera. Sung in Spanish, dialogue in English.

WHEN

WHERE

Moody Performance Hall
2520 Flora St.
Dallas, TX 75201
https://www.orchestraofnewspain.org/

TICKET INFO

$10-$100
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