Brooklyn Botanic Garden hosts first opera ever
Gotham Chamber Opera’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
Despite the heat, humidity and threatening skies, the muse and a cool breeze prevailed, so an audience of more than 1,000 people witnessed a magical performance of “La Hija de Rappaccini” by the Gotham Chamber Opera Company. This was the first opera presented at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in its 103-year history.
The Mexican composer Daniel Catan (1949-2011) and his librettist Juan Tovar based this fascinating opera on a play by Octavio Paz and a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The opera had its premiere in Mexico in 1991. This production was made possible through a generous gift from Grant and Jacqui Smith The result was an evening of haunting enchantment in an outdoor venue that evoked its setting in 15th-century Padua.
The Gotham Chamber Opera Company, founded by artistic director Neal Goren, is now in its 11th season. It has presented rarely-performed chamber operas, from the Baroque to contemporary, in various venues throughout the city. According to the program notes, the story tells of a doctor who seeks to protect and control his daughter by keeping her locked in a garden where he experiments with poisonous plants. She is immune to the plants but is a carrier of their danger. When the young student Giovanni falls in love with her, he is faced with the knowledge that pursuing that love will surely lead to his death.