La hija de Rappaccini

Music by Daniel Catán
Libretto by Juan Tovar
based on the play by Octavio Paz
and the 1844 short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
 
Allison Voth, music director
Rose Freeman, stage director

Daniel Catán’s opera La hija de Rappaccini is set to a libretto by Juan Tovar, inspired the eponymous play by Octavio Paz and the short story, Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Set in 15th Century Padua, Italy, the passionate quest for power and eternal life by botanist and physician, Dr. Rappaccini, is questioned and challenged by those around him.  Are his scientific dreams altruistic or barbaric? Dr. Rappaccini‘s magical research garden proves a powerful force over his daughter, Beatriz, and her new young lover, Giovanni, bringing to the forefront the ageless battle between good and evil.  Will Dr. Rappaccini sacrifice his daughter in the name of science, or free her in the name if love and humanity? Sung in Spanish with English supertitles.