Sierra premiere to close Casals after Dudamel triumph
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
By PEGGY ANN BLISS
Special to The STAR
For Roberto Sierra, Puerto Rico’s most venerated living classical composer, this week represents a pinnacle: by Saturday he will have witnessed the world premiere of not one but two of his own creations in less than a week.
Hot on the heels of the triumphant unveiling of his “Estudios Latinos” (Latin Studies) in Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra led by charismatic Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, Sierra has made the supersonic sprint across the hemisphere toward San Juan to unveil his “Requiem isleño” on Saturday at the triumphant closing of the 70th Casals Festival.
Curiously, and totally intentionally, Sierra’s piece will be preceded by Franz Joseph Haydn’s 104th (and last) symphony, “London,” originally introduced to a mesmerized full house in that cosmopolitan capital in 1795.
Sierra’s uplifting choral work comes 231 years later at one of the most turbulent times for Puerto Rico.
“Rather than a Mass for the soul of one or more deceased souls, ‘Requiem Isleño’ (Island Requiem) is a plea for deliverance from the island’s devastation by multiple plagues in the past decade,” Sierra clarified in a program note.
“Requiem,” expressly commissioned for this significant Casals milestone, recounts the ravages of Hurricane Maria, the Ponce earthquakes, the fiscal crisis leading to bankruptcy and the consequent emigration, all complicated by the global COVID pandemic and sharp inflation triggered by widespread wars and political extremism. The work, to be interpreted by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maximiano Valdés, and The Coral Lírica de Puerto Rico, prepared by the versatile mezzo soprano Jo-Anne Herrero, will be presented with Spanish and Latin text, created by Virginia Sierra, the composer’s wife and longtime collaborator.
Vocal soloists, both surnamed Rivera, will be soprano Jessica and baritone Ricardo José, who have been active in the United States and Europe, including recently at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Ricardo José Rivera recently made a last-minute appearance there in “I Puritani,” broadcast worldwide as part of the “Live in HD” series.
Having recently appeared in San Juan to rave reviews in Culturarte’s excellent production of Charles Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette,” the baritone has been in great demand in Washington, D.C., Chicago and other major opera cities, where he is praised for his varied repertoire, including a broad spectrum of bel canto works. At one recent appearance, The New York Times praised him for having “the evening’s richest instrument,” powerful but capable of softness,” qualities this writer observed in abundance in the local production of “Romeo et Juliette.”
Composer at his peak
Sierra, 72, who recently retired as a professor of composition at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, says the work was composed “to contemplate the past, to mourn the many tragedies our island has endured in recent decades, and to offer a prayer of hope, which finds its expression in the final text: ‘Libérame.’ Set me free.”
The Haydn symphony, which sets the scene for this plea for normalcy and peace, was the last of a dozen the prodigious German genius wrote in the British capital, where he visited at least twice for more than a year.
Many, in fact, regard it as his greatest symphony score, local critic Ramón Arroyo Carrión noted.
The closing concert of the 70th annual Casals Festival will be held Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Pablo Casals Symphony Hall at Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center in Santurce.
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