Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 10 - El último sueño de Frida y Diego

19 | Lyric Opera of Chicago A Dream of Life and Death The composer’s first foray into opera continues her abiding commitment to riveting musical storytelling By Dr. Naomi André Gabriela Lena Frank’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego is indeed her first opera, but it is preceded by decades of experience as a composer who knows how to tell a story through a great variety of instrumental combinations and across multiple genres. As a virtuoso pianist and accomplished violinist, she has learned her craft deftly and deliberately — she is an accomplished performer, composer, and teller of history. Starting as a young, gifted musician, Frank received a rigorous conservatory training that began at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and culminated with her doctorate at the School of Music at the University of Michigan. Her approach to writing music includes asking questions and partnering closely with other musicians. “Since my earliest student days as an undergrad, I will grab friends and just ask them a lot of questions about their instrument,” she noted in an interview for a scholarly work on influential women in contemporary music. “I will often have little snippets of music I’ve composed, little combinations of things I’ve tried, and I want to see if they work — and if my friends have suggestions for how to make them more comfortable.” This collaborative practice and approach has been a hallmark that has continued through numerous residencies with leading orchestras and string quartets as well as at many educational institutions. In an interview after her 2013/14 residency with the Detroit Symphony, she mentions a special climactic figure that is only in the basses because, in that city, “I got to know the bass section well.” In addition to writing for full orchestra and multiple kinds of smaller ensembles (she also performs as a concert pianist), Frank has written extensively for voice in solo songs, a cappella chorus, and accompanied voices with chamber ensembles as well as the orchestra. Behind El último sueño , which premiered October 29, 2022 at San Diego Opera (and was performed on the West Coast also at San Francisco Opera and LA Opera), is a composer who knows how to handle vocal and orchestral forces and remains a master at collaboration. The “last dream” in the title encompasses the ethereal nature of in-betweenness that is threaded throughout the opera. We see this in the space between Earth and the underworld, living and the afterlife, a fleshy embodiment and the numinous spirit. Frank set Frida as a mezzo-soprano who extends to the top of the staff and down to the lower timbres at the bottom of the part’s range. Frida’s vocal writing and expressive orchestration give voice to the complexity of pain — a physical and emotional reality she sings about in her first entrance: “In life I had two major accidents: the impact of a trolley, and the blow of meeting Diego Rivera. The world was torture….the pain…Agony!”