Frida
MOT’s ‘Frida’ emotional and dynamic. You can’t capture protean Mexican artist Frida Kahlo any more than you can catch the wind, but Michigan Opera Theatre comes close to nabbing this free spirit. Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s work does a mostly admirable job of telling the story of the turbulent, passionate and painful life of Kahlo...the work’s emotional and dramatic intensity keeps this production airborne. There’s an episodic, cinematic quality to the action, which director Jose Maria Condemi paces at a brisk clip.
George Boulanda (Detroit News), Mar, 8, 2015
Fiery 'Frida' offers intensity and immediacy. The production offered the kind of dramatic intensity and immediacy that's too often missing in performances of standard repertory works. A projection of Frida's beautiful nightmare of a painting, "Henry Ford Hospital" (which she created in Detroit in 1932 in the wake of her miscarriage), appears. Diego laments that his work has been turned to dust. Frida sings lyrically, "No one sees the pain ... unless you paint it as your soul is torn apart." Director Jose Maria Condemi stages a quiet yet shattering conclusion: Frida throws streamers (her blood) at a canvas.
Mark Stryker (Detroit Free Press), Mar, 10, 2015
