Osvaldo Golijov: new recording of La Pasión según San Marcos
(June 2010)
Deutsche Grammophon has released a new box set of Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos, with two performances - video and audio.The new box set contains a DVD of the 2008 Holland Festival production of Golijov's Pasión, plus an audio-only recording on 2CDs (477 7461 7). Both versions feature singers Jessica Rivera, Biella da Costa and Reynaldo González-Fernandez and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, with conductors Robert Spano on the DVD and María Guinand on the CDs. The Pasión continues to travel widely, including recent performances in Los Angeles in April.
“It’s easy to understand why Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos received a 30-minute ovation at its 2000 Stuttgart premiere: a transferral of the Easter story to Latin America, it’s a vibrant, sonically colourful experience in which the native South American strains of samba, tango and salsa contribute as much as the orchestral and choral elements.
“The aria performances owe more to Portuguese fado than to European classical singing. Golijov’s intention was “to present a dark Jesus, not a pale European Jesus”, and his success is partly due to his incorporation of native styles and structures. The result is an engaging tapestry in which demotic forms and religious chorale combine with piquant, astringent energy.”
The Independent
"...although Osvaldo Golijov mixes Northern and Southern American elements, draws in African chanting and drumming, evokes the great Bach Passions in passing, and rounds the whole experience off with an ancient Jewish prayer, there's no crossing over as far as his own roots are concerned. An Argentine-born Jew, Golijov had early access to a whole panoply of 'native' styles - many with crucial musical ancestry in Europe and Africa... a dramatic and keenly emotional account of the suffering and death of Christ."
BBC Music Magazine
Golijov’s opera Ainadamar was staged for the first time in his native land in May in a new production at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata in Buenos Aires, coupled with Ginastera’s Estancia ballet.
> Further information on Work: La Pasión según San Marcos
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