The Fort Worth Opera — which just appointed a new general director, Tuomas Hiltunen, and gave long-standing maestro Joe Illick the title artistic director — has another major announcement: the commission of a new opera to make its world premiere in 2020.
The Last Dream of Frida & Diego, set on el Dia de los Muertos in 1957, tracks the tumultuous relationship between the icon Mexican painters. The libretto, which will be in Spanish, is by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz (Anna in the Tropics) with a score by Gabriela Lena Frank. It will debut in FWO’s 2020 season. The “official” press conferences about the commission will take place in Mexico City on Aug. 24 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
The opera was co-commissioned with the San Diego Opera, the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin and DePauw University. It culminates the FWO’s initiative Operas of the Americas and the Noches de Opera program of broadening the troupe’s audience among Latinos.
