When Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, asked director Lileana Blain-Cruz what she wanted to see on stage, she didn't even have to think about the answer: “El Niño.” .
A few years ago, she had already been hired to direct Missy Mazzoli's “Lincoln in the Bardo,” an adaptation of the George Saunders novel that will premiere in the 2026-27 season, but Gelb wondered what else she might be interested in. in.
A longtime fan of John Adams and his collaboration with director and librettist Peter Sellars, Blain-Cruz particularly likes the 2000 oratorio “El Niño,” which blends the story of the Nativity with ancient and modern texts such as poetry by Rosario Castellanos and Gabriela Mistral. I did. .
“It makes you cry and you don’t expect it,” Blain-Cruz said of the piece. “After hearing it, it shook me and kept me in my imagination for a while, but I never knew when I would get the chance to perform on stage in person.”
Blain-Cruz boldly chose an oratorio for his first project at the Met. Oratorios, which are abstract, loosely written, and written more for concert halls than opera houses, are more difficult to perform convincingly than operas, and are themselves incredibly difficult.
But she said the nature of the oratorio suited her style. Gelb agrees after being impressed by Thornton Wilder's “The Skin of Our Teeth” at Lincoln Center Theater in 2022.
“I was blown away by her visual sensibility and storytelling,” Gelb said. Visual is one way to describe her approach to “El Niño,” a supernova of color, movement and vibration between the intimate and the sacred.
“There has never been a director like her working at the Met,” added Gelb. “She is an irrepressible force of nature who seems to be filled with adrenaline at every moment. When her rehearsals are over, she dances up and down the aisle without fail. But the fact that she is an extrovert is just icing on the cake. Because she is meticulous and above all, she is outstanding.”
Between rehearsals recently, Blain-Cruz discussed how he's adjusting to the Met and how an oratorio can challenge and liberate a director. The following is an edited transcript of the conversation.
What was the concept of this work?
John and Peter built this building in Los Angeles and were interested in immigrant stories. The story of Mary and Joseph's migration is fascinating, but my feeling about the journey is that we are watching two different Marys journey through two different forms of migration: Julia on land and J'Nai on water. And their journeys collide as we enter the second act.
But “El Niño” also has many meanings. Maybe it's about the weather system. There are so many climate-related things here that require us to be in harmony with the Earth and nature. So, while thinking about witnesses and narratives, I started thinking about the earth as a witness. This is a timeless story, what exists in all times? nature.
How would you explain the difference between a performance of an oratorio and a more simple drama?
A straightforward drama like 'Faust' has characters, and they say what they say. There is a linearity within the work. But these oratorios have an abstraction of time, and that's what I enjoy most about performing them. They can coexist many times and that is freedom. You can have a field, or you can live in the field and talk about the field. That kind of double consciousness and the relationship between characters and time is thrilling.
One of the most difficult challenges of this work, especially compared to a play, is moving dozens of bodies in a way that is both dramatically and logically meaningful.
The tricky thing is how to do this within limited time. If I had a year, this would be easy. How do you distill through rehearsal time the most essential thing, their reason for being in that moment, and instill that reason so they can be alive in that moment?
I think it would also be helpful to work with Julia, Davóne and J'Nai, who have great theatrical talent.
They are doing their job and doing amazing things that ground the reality of our existence. John Adams said that maintaining intimacy is the trickiest thing. They are able to maintain the emotional journey and the changes and nuances that occur in each moment, and that is what maintains the humanity within the character.
you <치아의 피부>When I directed , a lot of people talked about prehistoric stuffed animals. Have you come up with a similar coup here, taking advantage of the Met's space and resources?
There are so many moments where something huge happens musically and we try to live up to that invitation. In “Shake the Heavens,” I asked puppeteer James Ortiz, “How do you do sacred work?” It has to be alive, strange, odd, and feminine. So what he came up with is an eye doll that appears in a strange and mysterious way in what we jokingly call the eyes of the vagina. They move in space and make up this huge thing. But there's also projection design by Hannah Wasileski. She actually uses projection to paint. These designers all know how to play together.
Was John Adams also involved?
That person is coming to the opening ceremony. We talked and he was very generous. He said that we are filled with so much news and information about how people in the world hate each other. But there is also love, creativity and creation, and just hearing it made me feel safe. There is grace in that. He talked about how he and Peter did this and worked with 16-year-olds in California. At 16 you were pregnant and the world thought you were doing everything wrong. To be able to hold a child and do so with love and grace is such a profound and incredible thing.
I think that humility is also part of this work. My family is from Haiti and Puerto Rico, and when I saw Haitians being attacked by men on horseback at the border, I was outraged that I could not uplift them as people who sacrificed their lives to go on this incredible journey. We'll turn it over in this step. We end up saying, “No, these people are great.”
and the Met's massive stage size.
It's huge. And I like big ones. There are many benefits to coming to the opera and seeing the world before your eyes, the feeling you can feel the music, the scale of beauty reaching your eyes. I want to give that feeling to everyone sitting in the back seat. When we think about what divinity and spirit are, we want to extend that to our audience. I hope the entire Met will be full of life.