September 24, 2010
But the biggest visual talker is probably the unexpected sighting early in the first act that can be deduced by looking at the adjacent, fit-for-print photo. Especially riveting was that this moment unfolded slowly, and quite literally, in the hands of the world’s most celebrated living tenor.
First, a couple notes:
The nudity is contextual, and drawn from Plácido Domingo’s role as Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. He sings a passage to his on-stage wife that taps into a famous Neruda love poem called "Sonnet XXVII," that begins “Naked, you are as simple as one of your hands…”Tickets and schedule information at:
Il Postino, L.A. Opera, September 2010
Domingo's tenor lifts respectable, but too literal, 'Il Postino' by Daniel Catán
Washington Post
It's certainly a rewarding role for Domingo. The 69-year-old multitasker is always on the lookout for appropriate roles in between his duties as head of the Los Angeles Opera (where this is his fourth mainstage commission) and the Washington National Opera (where his sole new commission was for the young-artist program). The exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, in the opera as in Michael Radford's 1994 movie, is an aging but still-sexy artist pondering life and art and his legacy. He is world-renowned and has magnetic charisma. Sound familiar?
Opera review: L.A. Opera premieres 'Il Postino'
San Francisco Chronicle
But Catán's great success here is his conception of the character of Neruda, and how perfectly it suits Domingo's artistic personality at this stage in his career. Like Domingo himself, Neruda embodies a fascinating combination of youthful romanticism and the canniness and authority of middle age.
