Voice Professor’s Opera Receives Second D.C. Production
Brian Arreola’s Zavala-Zavala is based on a true story.
The GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, D.C. recently mounted a production of Professor of Voice Brian Arreola’s opera, Zavala-Zavala. The opera, which premiered at The Kennedy Center on April 9, 2022, in a production by the D.C. opera company IN Series, ran at the GALA from June 21 to June 23.
Zavala-Zavala is inspired by the true story of a family separated at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Arreola began to develop the opera in 2017, motivated by the widespread reports of children being separated at the border from their caregivers.
“In the ensuing controversy and protest it struck me that opera’s capacity for giving voice to the stories and experiences of marginalized persons meant that an opera on this subject could be a powerful way to humanize the people our government was working so hard to DE-humanize,” Arreola said.
Supported by a Faculty Research Grant, he commissioned a libretto from Anna Deeny Morales, who teaches at the Georgetown University Center for Latin American Studies.
Deeny Morales researched stories of migrant family separations, eventually choosing the case of Honduran migrant Natividad Zavala and her grandson, Erik, who were separated after crossing the Rio Grande River. In 2017, the case became the first family separation case adjudicated in El Paso, Texas. Erik has since been united with his mother, although Natividad Zavala was deported.
Arreola completed Zavala-Zavala in 2022. It is his first opera and has been well received by D.C. critics.
“Composer Brian Arreola, in his operatic debut, demonstrates a keen ability to fuse musical and dramatic staging to create a powerful and evocative score during the aforementioned moments.” wrote Julian Oquendo for DC Theater Arts, calling the recent production “deeply moving.”
While the production was directed by Corinne Hayes, Arreola conducted the chamber orchestra, which included UNC Charlotte music faculty Mira Frisch (cello), Elizabeth Sullivan (oboe), and Jessica Lindsey (clarinet) and alumna Alice Silva ’11 (violin).
“Arreola’s music is accessible and tuneful,” critic Karren Alenier wrote in her column for Scene4 Magazine. “The ten-piece, on-stage orchestra, under the baton of the composer, provided a satisfying net of sound that both supported and accented the richly nuanced voices of the outstanding singers.”
Arreola directs the Opera Workshop in the Department of Music. He has sung lead and supporting tenor roles with opera companies across the United States and Europe, including Minnesota Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Carolina, Toledo Opera, New Orleans Opera, Grachtenfestival (Netherlands), Iford Opera (United Kingdom), and others. He seeks to advance the work of composers from underrepresented groups, collaborating with Asian-American composers P.Q. Phan and Asako Hirabayashi on multiple operas and concerts, and recording a CD of art songs by Asian and Asian-American composers, The Boy Who Drew Cats, released by Albany Records in 2019. His compositions have been performed across the United States, broadcast on NPR, and commercially released on Cantus Recordings and Albany Records.
