An evening of world premieres at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater presented Brian Arreola and Anna Deeny Morales’s new opera ZAVALA-ZAVALA: an opera in v cuts, inspired by one family’s story of separation at the Mexico-U.S. border.
The program opened with Our Queer Mother, composed by Emily Lau, with text by Gabriela Mistral, Langston Hughes, and Jackson Sade. Maestro Ángel Gil-Ordóñez conducted the Georgetown University Orchestra and the Children's Chorus of Washington Chamber Ensemble, joined by vocalists Alex Alburqueque, Elizabeth Mondragon, Karlo Neumann-Caragol, Daniel J. Smith, and Judy Yannini. The April 9 performance, co-presented with the Kennedy Center, also featured The Best Cuisine by Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence Carlos Simon, with text by baritone Carl DuPont, performed with the Chiarina Chamber Players.
This program was made possible by the generous support of Joe Drach and Janet Farrell and the Georgetown Americas Institute, with support for the Kennedy Center presentation provided by the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Chiarina Chamber Players’ commission of The Best Cuisine was made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Performances in Washington, DC, were made possible by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Featuring
Anna Deeny Morales works in poetry and music as a librettist, translator, and literary critic. Her most recent operatic work is ZAVALA-ZAVALA: an opera in v cuts, commissioned by UNC, Charlotte, composer and professor, Brian Arreola. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow for her translation of Nobel Laureate, Gabriela Mistral, she has also translated works by Raúl Zurita, Mercedes Roffé, and Alejandra Pizarnik, among others. Her edited and translated volume of poetry by Nicanor Parra is forthcoming from New Directions in 2022. She has served as an expert reader for the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Competition; a judge for the National Translation Award in Poetry; and she chairs the Gabriela Mistral Youth Poetry Competition. Deeny Morales is an adjunct professor in the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University, and her book manuscript, Other Solitudes, Essays on Consciousness and Poetry, is forthcoming in 2023.
Ángel Gil-Ordóñez is director of the Georgetown University Orchestra and adjunct professor of the practice at Georgetown. He is also music director/conductor of the PostClassical Ensemble in Washington, DC, principal guest conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble, advisor for education and programming for Trinitate Philharmonia, a program in León, Mexico, modeled on Venezuela’s El Sistema, and a regular guest conductor at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, and at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, IN.
Brian Arreola is a composer whose compositions have been performed across the United States, broadcast on NPR, and commercially released on Cantus Recordings and Albany Records. ZAVALA-ZAVALA is his first opera. Arreola has sung lead and supporting tenor roles with opera companies across the United States and Europe, including Minnesota Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Carolina, Toledo Opera, New Orleans Opera, Grachtenfestival (Netherlands), Iford Opera (United Kingdom), and others. He seeks to advance the work of composers from underrepresented groups, collaborating with Asian-American composers P.Q. Phan and Asako Hirabayashi on multiple operas and concerts, and recording a CD of art songs by Asian and Asian-American composers, The Boy Who Drew Cats, released by Albany Records in 2019. Arreola is professor of Voice & Opera Workshop at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Alex Alburqueque is a Peruvian native baritone opera singer and vocalist. He studied vocal performance at the University of Maryland under the guidance of renowned American baritone Dominic Cossa. He has worked alongside Gregory Buchalter from the Metropolitan Opera, Lucy Arner from New Jersey Verismo Opera, and Carlos Palacios from Teatro Argentino de la Plata. He has worked with Washington National Opera, Maryland Lyric Opera, Opera Camerata of Washington DC, In Series, Opera Bel Cantanti, Teatro Lirico DC, and Opera NOVA.
Elizabeth Mondragon is a Washington, DC-based mezzo-soprano opera singer. Her performance experience ranges from traditional operatic productions to new music premieres. Principal roles include Carmen, Rosina, Dido, Ma Moss, Giulio Cesare, and Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors. She has sung throughout the northeastern United States with companies such as Opera North, Camerata Baroque, Amore Opera, One World Symphony, Maryland Lyric Opera, Regina Opera, and In Series.
Judy Yannini is a Mexican native professional opera singer and an educator of vocalists. She was the winner of the American Opera Idol 2020 with Opera Connecticut, and she has explored her interest in musical theater by directing her own concert series The Disney SongBook with pianist Roberto Salomón.
Karlo Neumann-Caragol is a treble opera singer and vocalist.