An opera titled El Ultimo Sueno de Frida y Diego centers on 20th century Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The composer links their relationship to recognizable patterns in personal relationships, including the replication of toxic dynamics. The work draws parallels to famous charismatic couples who also caused each other distress. During rehearsals, the composer visited a MoMA exhibition featuring Kahlo and Rivera paintings, drawings, archival photographs, and an environment designed by the opera’s set and costume designer. The composer focused on a surreal Kahlo painting with her head superimposed on a deer pierced by arrows. The exhibition notes that Rivera was more famous than Kahlo during their lifetimes, including his global prominence in the 1930s.
"“We all see elements of this relationship in our own relationships and how we replicate these kinds of toxic elements too,” composer Gabriela Lena Frank said ahead of the May 14 opening night at New York's Metropolitan Opera. “They remind me a little bit of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, you know, they were just brilliant and charismatic and attracted to one another and then they drove each other nuts also.”"
"“If I had to pick one Frida Kahlo painting that I would look at for the rest of my life, it was always going to be this one,” said Frank. “I remember seeing this as a little girl. I was just kind of haunted by it.” Frank had just won the Pulitzer Prize for her orchestral work Picaflor: A future myth, inspired by Andean cosmology."
"Joining her on the tour of MoMA's Frida and Diego: The Last Dream a translation of the opera's Spanish title was librettist and fellow Pulitzer winner, librettist Nilo Cruz. The exhibition features paintings and drawings by Kahlo and Rivera, as well as archival photographs, all in an environment created by Jon Bausor, the opera's set and costume designer."
"Beverly Adams, the museum's Estrellita Brodsky curator of Latin American art, noted that Rivera was far more famous than Kahlo during their lifetimes. “In the 1930s, he was the most famous artist in the world,” she told Frank and Cruz about the painter who crea"
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