Seminar: Florencia en el Amazonas
“Music is the sound of time as it passes.” ~Daniel Catán, composer of Florencia en el Amazonas
On Sunday, November 16, a sold-out crowd attended an Opera League seminar on Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas held on the fifth floor of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Nino Sanichidze, head of LAO’s Young Artist program, led oboist Leslie Reed and bassoonist William May in a performance of Henri Brod’s Trio No.1 for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon (Op.5). It provided a delightful soundtrack as the room got settled and appetites were whetted for the Amazonian arias.
The format of this seminar centered on a three-person panel that included Daniel Catán's widow Andrea Puente Catán, author and radio host Martin Perlich, and William Tourant, professor emeritus of music from Cal State Northridge.
Andrea Catán, a harpist and music professor, kicked things off with an excerpt from Florencia. She then described how LA Opera and the Opera League helped Daniel when he was not yet well known in the US. “LA Opera was Daniel’s home….he was happiest here,” she said.
Martin Perlich and William Tourant guided us through the plot and how the music carried it. Professor Tourant played the final chord and emphasized how it demonstrates that for the characters, the opera and everything in it—the river, the insects, the vegetation—continue on into the future.
The seminar ended with a performance by Spanish mezzo Nancy Fabiola Herrera, who will be singing the role of Paula in LAO’s production. She performed Paula's aria from act 2 whose beauty, Professor Tourant claimed, “is meant to bring someone back from the dead.”
