Opera Southwest’s relationship with mezzo-soprano Olga Perez Flora began with a minor emergency. In 2022, during preparations for Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s Frida, the company suddenly needed a replacement for the four combined roles of Dimas’ Mother, Lupe Marin, Mrs. Rockefeller and Natalia Trotsky. Whew!
Olga had only recently moved to Albuquerque, an exceptionally fortunate coincidence for an opera company confronted with the prospect of finding a qualified mezzo-soprano on very short notice.
She stepped in, saved the day, and has been coming back ever since.
Her subsequent appearances with Opera Southwest have included Toypurina in Héctor Armienta’s Zorro, the Mother and the Sea in Jorge Martín’s Before Night Falls, and the title role in the company’s 2024 Spanish-language production of Carmen. These assignments represent a fairly spectacular range of characters.
This season Olga returns as Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana, the mother of Turiddu, whose considerable maternal anxieties turn out to be entirely justified. It is a compact role, but a crucial one: Mascagni places the emotional consequences of the opera’s violence squarely in her hands.
Outside Opera Southwest, Olga is Associate Professor of Voice and Head of Voice at the University of New Mexico, where she trains young singers while maintaining an active performing career of her own. Her work spans opera, musical theater, and concert repertoire, including Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and a recording project devoted to Cuban art songs.
An opera company can spend considerable time and money cultivating artistic relationships, arranging auditions, and planning future collaborations. Occasionally the whole process begins because somebody cancels at the last minute and the right singer happens to have just moved to town.
Visit Olga Perez Flora’s website
Cavalleria runs October 25-November 1.
