The Washington, D.C. company IN Series presented an opera composed by Professor of Voice Brian Arreola at The Kennedy Center on Saturday, April 9. ¡Zavala-Zavala!: an opera in v cuts received top billing in a production of three world premieres Saturday evening.
¡Zavala-Zavala!, with a libretto by Anna Deeny Morales, is inspired by the story of one family separated at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Arreola began to develop the opera in 2017, motivated by the Trump administration’s immigration policies and 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 Deeny, who teaches at the Georgetown University Center for Latin American Studies.
“She got to work researching stories from the family separations, eventually settling on the case of Natividad Zavala and her grandson, Erik, who were separated after crossing the Rio Grande River,” Arreola said.
Arreola and Deeny worked through the pandemic to complete the opera, which received a preview performance on April 8 at McLean Community Center in McLean, Virginia.
“During the writing of the opera Erik was actually reunited with his mother, with whom he will be attending the premiere!” said Arreola. “Our team has also been in touch with his grandmother Natividad, and though we invited her to the premiere she prefers to stay in Honduras.”
Arreola and Deeny were joined by performers and others on April 6 in a panel discussion at Georgetown University: ¡Zavala-Zavala! From Home to Archive and Opera.
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. ¡Zavala-Zavala! is his first opera.
Read more about the story behind the opera in this article in the El Paso Times.