Lo que más duele
(What hurts the most) (2025)
OPERA in 2 ACTS about Vicarious Violence (80 min.)
Includes poetry by Spanish authors (in Spanish)
3 Singers (Soprano, Mezzo & Baritone)
Greek Chorus (6 singers AA-TT-BB & 2 dancers)
Ensemble: 1.1.1.1. – 2.1 – Perc (2) – Harp – Strings (small section 6-6-4-2-1 minimum)
Sinopsis
The libretto is inspired by texts compiled from real news reports, conversations with victims, letters, documents, and statements collected from publicly accessible court records. From this material, a narrative is constructed that is not focused on a specific case, but rather on a more general level.
The opera explores the challenges the judicial system faces when dealing with custody issues, and the delicate balance between protecting the child and denying a parent the right to exercise parental rights.
The action begins with a mother cleaning a child's room, packing toys into boxes for storage. This room remains visible throughout the performance in a corner of the stage: sometimes illuminated, sometimes shrouded in darkness, like an omnipresent character, a constant reminder. The room symbolizes the child victims, whose fate is hinted at, but never explicitly stated, in the opera. From that point, the story goes back in time to the parents' love story, their increasingly difficult coexistence, the first incidents of violence, the complaints, the reconciliations... until reaching the final decision to report, which triggers the fatal outcome.
At the end of the play, we return to the empty children's room as a visual and emotional epilogue.
In the arias and more lyrical moments, the text incorporates poetry by authors such as Rosalía de Castro, Miguel de Cervantes, Miguel Hernández, Antonio Machado, Francisco de Quevedo, and Rubén Darío. These verses lend depth and poetic resonance to the unfolding action.
Since the situations depicted are tragically recognizable, some details are deliberately omitted, allowing the audience to fill in the gaps with their own collective memory. This facilitates a more agile narrative, focusing on the most emotionally powerful sung and instrumental sections and reducing the use of recitative.
A Greek chorus acts as the voice of the people, adding another dimension to the play. It comments on the action with gossip and clichés, interacting with the characters and the audience, and offering reflections on what is happening on stage.
Integrated into the Greek chorus, two dancers fulfill multiple functions: they participate as part of the Chorus, star in dance scenes, and assume the roles of extras within the plot (police officers, etc.).