Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera dream together again at Met Opera

Key Points:

• The opera El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, inspired by the passionate and turbulent relationship of Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, premieres at New York's Metropolitan Opera on May 14, exploring their story through a surreal, dreamlike narrative rather than a biographical approach.
• Composer Gabriela Lena Frank and librettist Nilo Cruz, both Pulitzer Prize winners, collaborated on the opera, which imagines Frida returning from the Underworld during Mexico's Day of the Dead to reunite briefly with a dying Diego, blending themes of love, pain, and artistic legacy.
• The production, directed by Brazilian artist Deborah Colker, features dynamic choreography with hip-hop popping skeletons and death mask costumes, emphasizing surrealism and movement to evoke the artists' imagery and emotional intensity.
• The opera highlights Kahlo's enduring cultural impact as a feminist icon and Rivera's historical fame, using orchestral elements like the marimba to pay tribute to Mexican culture and reflecting on the complex, often toxic dynamics of their relationship.
• El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego runs at the Met through June 5, with a live HD broadcast scheduled for May 30 in theaters across the U.S. and internationally, inviting audiences to contemplate whose dream the opera represents and the timelessness of the artists' work.