Last fall I photographed two operas (one in October, one in December) presented by Albuquerque's local opera company, Opera Southwest. Both have their origins in Hispanic culture and traditions, and both featured scores by Hispanic composers. This post is about the first one, Dolores. I will post a separate installment for the second one, The Farolitos of Christmas.
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The October opera was Dolores, based on events in the life of Dolores Huerta, a labor organizer and leader born in New Mexico who worked side by side with Cesar Chavez in the 1960s to co-found the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which evolved later into the United Farm Workers (UFW). The opera takes place in 1968, during the Delano (CA) vineyard workers' strike and California grape boycott . . .
and depicts key moments in the workers' struggles including Chavez's hunger strike;
Martin Luther King's and RFK's support for the strike, and their tragic assassinations barely two months apart.
One of the most moving moments was an aria sung by the character of the Ambassador Hotel busboy who held the dying RFK in his arms:
Dolores, Chavez, and the workers' movement faced oppression by growers and the U.S. government (embodied in the character of Richard Nixon, whom my camera loved and who nearly stole the show) . . .
. . . as well as internal disputes among the strike leadership . . .
. . . and, for Dolores, a dark night of the soul:
The opera ends as Dolores rallies the workers to continue the strike and their mission.
We were honored to have the librettist and composer -- Marella Martin Koch and Nicolas Lell Benavides -- attending the rehearsal . . .
with Nic literally cutting and pasting last-minute changes in the show . . .
and fine-tuning things with the director and the conductor.
If you would like to see images from the complete dress rehearsal in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.
Enjoy!
