A heart warming story set to neo-Romantic lyric bliss
I had the privilege of attending this opera when it premiered in Los Angeles. Placido Domingo fits the mentor role very well as he passes the torch on to his counterpart, Charles Castronovo. The opera follows the plot of the movie pretty closely with the exception that it is sung in Spanish. Penned by the recently deceased Mexican-American composer, Daniel Catán. this was his final work. Often compared to the stylings of Puccini and Debussy, you'll find a very lush romantic score with some complexities that will sound like film music to most. With a great supporting cast, they bring to life the parallel storylines of romance and politics. However, I really loved the chemistry between Domingo and Castronovo, and the growth of their two characters. The young lyric tenor sings with a heart of noble sincerity, which is coupled well with the prolific wisdom of Domingo's voice. Even if you are not the usual opera fan, you will find this modern story accessible, and of course...
The First 19th Century Opera ...
... of the 21st Century! With "Il Postino," Mexican composer Daniel Catán has crafted an opera closer in both music and drama to the operas of Puccini than to those of Stravinsky, Berg, or Prokofiev, not to mention Glass or Adams! It's not post-modern; it's as if modernism never happened! And guess what? It works! It's a moving piece of narrative theater, made powerful by the brilliant ACTING of Plácido Domingo as Pablo Neruda and Charles Castronovo as the rural postman Mario. The Spanish-language libretto stays quite close to the Italian cinema Il Postino, but the character portrayals in the opera are even better than those in the film. I almost forgot that the singing poet on stage wasn't really Neruda, so well did Domingo capture his affect both in music and in "figura." The poignant tragedy of the narrative left Domingo visibly crying during his curtain calls. No applause could be adequate for the character performance of Castronovo as the Little Postman; he's as...
A Sparkling Production of Daniel Catán's opera IL POSTINO
What was beloved by audiences in the live production of Daniel Catán's opera `IL POSTINO' at the LA Opera is finally available on DVD and the result is an even greater appreciation for this new opera.
Born in Mexico City in 1949, Daniel Catán was, until his untimely death on April 8, 2011, one of the foremost composers in contemporary opera (La Hija de Rappacini (Rappaccini's Daughter), Florencia en el Amazonas, loosely based on Gabriel García Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, and Salsipuedes. Speaking of his fourth opera, Il Postino, the composer recalled, "I realized, from the very first time I saw the film, that it was a suitable theme for an opera. It deals with Art and Love: the foundations upon which we build our lives. Love is what makes us human. Art is our most sophisticated tool for achieving that humanity. And opera is one of the most complete art forms ever imagined, for it includes music and poetry."
Based on the Academy...
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