Chicago Classical Review

Mon Mar 23, 2026 at 1:19 pm

Did any artistic couple have a relationship more suited to operatic treatment than Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo?

Lyric Opera thinks not. The company is closing its opera season with the Chicago premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego), which opened Saturday night. 

The composer’s first opera seems on an express train to success, premiering at San Diego Opera in 2022 and moving on to San Francisco the following year. After this Chicago run, Frida y Diego moves to New York in May with Isabel Leonard and Carlos Alvarez starring in a new Met production.

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo shared many interests, principally their painting, travel and leftist politics (both were committed Marxists). Despite the 20-year age difference, the Mexican artists married in 1929 (Rivera’s third marriage, Kahlo’s first) and Kahlo’s art flourished under Rivera’s encouragement and guidance. Yet theirs proved a tumultuous relationship (they divorced in 1939 and remarried the following year) with both engaging in numerous extramarital liaisons. The bisexual Kahlo was at least as prolific as Diego, her striking looks attracting numerous celebrated lovers including Georgia O’Keefe, Josephine Baker and Leon Trotsky. 

Kahlo suffered from poor heath throughout her life due to spinal injuries suffered in a 1925 bus accident in which she was impaled by a metal pole. Her right leg was amputated in 1953 due to gangrene; depressed and in failing health, Kahlo died the following year, likely by her own hand. A devastated Rivera described it as “the most tragic day of my life.” His own health declined rapidly and Rivera died three years later.

Rather than focus on the couple’s turbulent relationship, artistic careers, or multitudinous romantic conquests,  librettist Nilo Cruz has penned a fantastical, dream-like scenario, reflective of his plays, in which the deceased Frida returns from the underworld to the land of the living to visit her still-extant husband.

The Spanish-language opera begins on the Day of the Dead, when Diego visits a cemetery, reflecting on the departed Frida and pining for her return. She is initially skeptical of the ailing Rivera’s pleas but ultimately agrees. Her return is facilitated by Catrina, the “Keeper of the Dead,” who warns Frida that she can go back to Diego for 24 hours but must never touch him  or the pain of her mortal existence will return. They are reunited and the happy couple returns to their beloved Casa Azul home where they revisit old times and Frida tries to paint. Ultimately, she cannot resist Diego’s repeated pleas to embrace him and, as she does so, her pain immediately returns. Diego pleads with Catrina to allow Frida to take him to the afterlife; she assents and the couple finally enter the underworld together united in eternity.

That’s a lot to pack into two hours. Cruz’s scenario is a virtual inversion of the Orpheus myth (where the husband rescues the wife from the underworld) that has inspired operas from Monteverdi and Gluck to Philip Glass and Matthew Aucoin.

El último sueño de Frida y Diego has much going for it: Frank’s compelling score, a strong cast, and a striking, at times visually stunning production. All elements came together Saturday to create a vivid, colorful and impressive night of theater.

Frank’s flowing, restless score is powerful, often haunting and eminently listenable. Even when the stage action was static or dragged, the crystalline timbres and iridescent scoring coming out of the pit consistently entranced the ear.

And yet—somewhat paradoxically—engaging as Frank’s music is there is little that sticks in the memory (an issue I’ve had also had with Frank’s orchestral music). More crucially—and Cruz’s libretto bears some blame for this—there are no true musical peaks or standout solo moments for the singers. Yes, there are solos and a late quasi-duet for Frida and Diego. But they come and go quickly and feel like isolated moments in an efficiently scrolling theatrical canvas that doesn’t stop long enough for the music to make a strong  impact. At times Frida y Diego feels like a Nilo Cruz play with superb incidental music rather than a satisfying opera in itself. 

Cruz’s libretto is more linear than the one he wrote for Lyric’s Bel Canto in 2015, a much ballyhooed project curated by Renee Fleming that has yet to be revived. Yet the action sometimes is talky and the pace lumbering. More crucially, the opera takes a rather superficial take on the artists; Frida and Diego seem like pieces being moved around on a theatrical chessboard, shoehorned into a constraining framework that never allows these volatile, fascinating individuals to burst forth to vivid life.

Some of Cruz’s dramatic choices also seem odd. Leonardo is an actor and drag queen who wants to impersonate Greta Garbo so he can return to life and entertain a friend who was obsessed with the Hollywood actress. The character seems to have waltzed in from La Cage aux Folles, and the subplot feels like padding, wholly extraneous to the artists’ lives. Wouldn’t it have been better to have a character based on a real person grounded in the couple’s actual lives—one of Frida’s famous lovers or perhaps a Diego political ally?

Ultimately, those who come to Lyric for a great theatrical experience—which seems increasingly the case these days—will undoubtedly have an enjoyable evening. Those who come expecting a great opera, may be disappointed.

(Frank’s Frida y Diego, by the way, is not the only opera about the two Mexican artists. Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s Frida has been presented in Miami and elsewhere.)

Daniela Mack (Angela in The Listeners last season) looked almost like Frida’s reincarnation, and for the most part gave a compelling portrayal. Her wide vibrato—a recurring feature at Lyric Opera this spring—was distracting at times but for the most part the mezzo supplied ardent and fully committed vocalism in a role that ranged from contralto-like low notes to bright soprano coloratura heights. Her acting was solid throughout as well;  the first act doesn’t allow much characterization but Mack brought greater fire and depth to Frida in Act II.

Alfredo Daza created Diego in the opera’s premiere, and is repeating the role for the third time in these performances. Matching his bear-like presence, Daza’s burly baritone has some wear but it fits the character and Daza rose to dramatic moments with impressive strength. There is a natural, lived-in quality to the Mexican baritone’s portrayal of the ailing, lumpen, painter who, despite the volatile relationship, still longs for his wife. 

As Catrina, Ana Maria Martinez returned for her second Lyric appearance this season following Despina in Cosi fan tutte. She securely tackled the often punishing demands and high notes of this odd role—part scary death queen and part officious hallway monitor (“Everyone get in line, get in line.”). Yet Martinez had some fun with the campy character and made the most of her extended coloratura laughter when ridiculing Frida.

Key’mon Murrah made an admirable house debut as Leonardo, a role he created in San Diego, unveiling a surprisingly ample and refulgent countertenor voice. Ryan Center members Finn Sagal, Daniel Luis Espinal and Benjamin R. Sokol proved a humorous and well-blended trio of Villagers who confront Rivera in the cemetery in the opening scene.

The Lyric Opera Chorus is prominently featured in this opera and have much to do as townspeople and underworld inhabitants. Frank’s rich and idiomatic choral writing provides some of the best music in the opera. Well prepared by Michael Black, the ensemble sang the Spanish text with polished and robust vocalism as well as handling their myriad stage movements smoothy and professionally.

The production proved  the most successful element of the evening. Jorge Ballina’s scenic design was remarkable, as with the candlelit cemetery, where the lights ascend to hover over the underworld set. Also inspired were the moments when frames descend to capture Frida and Diego’s various portrait stances.  The lighting by Victor Zapatero was equally assured and evocative. Director Lorena Maza, who helmed the opera’s debut,  moved the action—often complex with a large chorus onstage—seamlessly with ingenuity and professionalism.

Conductor Roberto Kalb made an outstanding Lyric Opera debut. Music director of Detroit Opera, Kalb was in the pit for the premiere and his experience in the score was manifest.

Kalb led a firmly focused performance that moved with strong momentum while relaxing fluently into the more impressionistic, dreamy scenes. His balancing was most impressive, allowing all of Frank’s kaleidoscopic scoring and varied timbres to make an impact.

El último sueño de Frida y Diego runs through April 4. lyricopera.org

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