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Friday, August 08, 2025
New Opera ‘Dolores’ Brings the Labor Struggle to the Stage
KQED: A landmark labor struggle might seem like difficult terrain to explore in an opera, but Long Beach-based composer Nicolás Lell Benavides knew that he had a riveting tale to tell in Dolores.
Taking on not only the challenge of telling such a complex story, but putting it into opera form is a feat, then to add to the level of complexity Benavides' has put in multiple languages with a host of music styles and genres. I hope to one day be able to see or work a production of this.
a. Taking on not only the challenge of telling such a complex story, but putting it into opera form is a feat, then to add to the level of complexity Benavides' has put in multiple languages with a host of music styles and genres. I hope to one day be able to see or work a production of this. Opera is such a unique part of theater in that it’s really easy to forget that there are new works constantly, simply because the popular ones that are produced are typically the older classics that carry big names like Mozart and Beethoven. To add to this the fact that they chose to focus on a specific part of Dolores' life knowing that there could be dozens of operas written about it makes it much more compelling. I wonder if they chose this specific moment because it was the best story or because there's a hope to write more of her story in the future.
Taking on not only the challenge of telling such a complex story, but putting it into opera form is a feat, then to add to the level of complexity Benavides' has put in multiple languages with a host of music styles and genres. I hope to one day be able to see or work a production of this.
ReplyDeletea. Taking on not only the challenge of telling such a complex story, but putting it into opera form is a feat, then to add to the level of complexity Benavides' has put in multiple languages with a host of music styles and genres. I hope to one day be able to see or work a production of this. Opera is such a unique part of theater in that it’s really easy to forget that there are new works constantly, simply because the popular ones that are produced are typically the older classics that carry big names like Mozart and Beethoven. To add to this the fact that they chose to focus on a specific part of Dolores' life knowing that there could be dozens of operas written about it makes it much more compelling. I wonder if they chose this specific moment because it was the best story or because there's a hope to write more of her story in the future.
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