Mexican Composer Daniel Catan Opera “Il Postino” opened on Thursday in LA with Placido Domingo in the starring role.
“This is the first time that Placido Domingo will sing some of my compositions and it is a real honor and privilege to work with him, because he is a singer of enormous experience and is also a great artist who enriches the role with his comments and observations,” Catan told Efe.
This production marks Catan’s fourth grand opera. Born in Mexico City 61 years ago, he has spent much of the last 30 years composing operas. Catan is the first Mexican composer to have their operas presented so broadly in the US and throughout the world. Opera’s in Spanish are taking their place in traditional theatres in large part due to Catan.
“My operas have always been in Spanish, because my wish and my lifetime project is to represent not only our language, but also the richness of our culture. Very few operas in Spanish are part of the international repertoire, so I think it’s important to keep working at it,” he said.
“I feel extremely proud of all that it means to be Hispanic. Spain gave us a wonderful culture and Latin America has known how to enrich it, so that this people, this culture enriched through the centuries is well worth bringing to the world in all its splendor,” the composer said.
