premiered works
Before Night Falls
Music by jorge Martin
libretto by dolores m. koch and jorge martin
Before Night Falls
“[Before Night Falls] bursts with restless passion . . . a gripping tale of individual triumph over repressive brutality, vibrant, compelling characters [and] pulsing, illustrative music, the combination of which was more than enough for this listener and the wildly enthusiastic opening-night audience.” — Opera News
Based on the famous memoir of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls follows Arenas’s life from childhood poverty in the Cuban countryside to his emigration to the United States in the 1980 Mariel boatlift and his last decade suffering from AIDS in New York City. Disillusioned by the Cuban Revolution and persecuted by the Castro regime as a dissident writer and homosexual, the opera follows his trials and tribulations as a political prisoner forced to smuggle his manuscripts abroad for publication. In 2000, Before Night Falls was made into an award-winning feature film directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp.
Before Night Falls is a full-length opera in two acts scored for a full orchestra. The music is by Cuban-born composer Jorge Martín with a libretto by Mr. Martín and Dolores M. Koch. The musical style is melodic and richly textured, full of contrasts with some Cuban inflections along with a chorus of almost Verdian grandeur.
CREATORS
Jorge Martin
composer/co-librettist
Jorge Martín was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1959; his family settled in the U.S. in 1965. He has degrees from Yale College and Columbia University. He writes in all major genres and his music is commissioned and performed by all kinds of artists and groups across the U.S. In 1999 and again in 2012 he received a generous Cintas Fellowship for creative artists of Cuban descent, and also the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ prestigious Academy Award in Music in 1998. In 2005 Mr. Martín was awarded a fellowship by the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, and artist’s residencies at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs in 1993 and again in 2003. The Fort Worth Opera Festival presented the World Premiere of Martín’s first full-length large-scale opera, Before Night Falls, in the spring of 2010. The opera is available on record; Mr. Martín has numerous other recordings available commercially, and he is a member of A.S.C.A.P.
Dolores M. Koch
co-librettist
Dolores M. Koch first met Reinaldo Arenas professionally, and became a close friend. She had translated into English three books by Arenas: Before Night Falls, The Doorman, and Mona and Other Tales.
PRESS
April 10, 2017 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Opera review: "Jorge Martin's "Before Night Falls""
March 23, 2017 - WLRN (Miami)
Opera Profile: "Cuban Poet Reinaldo Arenas Comes Back To Life On Opera Stage"
March 22, 2017 - South Florida Gay News
Opera Review: "Opera is Powerful, if Flawed, Testament to Cuban Dissident, Exile"
March 21, 2017 - Miami Herald
Opera Review: "Tragic Cuban opera compels in Miami debut"
March 8, 2017 - South Florida Gay News
Opera Profile: "Composer Speaks About ‘Before Night Falls’ at FGO"
March 2, 2017 - Gay City News
Opera Profile: "“Before Night Falls” Takes Miami"
Feb 15, 2016 - South Florida Classical Review
Opera Profile: Tale of Cuban poet among the offerings in FGO’s 2016-17 season
January 4, 2012 - WHAT'S UP MIAMI
Opera preview : "Anticipation for BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, The Opera"
August 20, 2011 - Vermont Public Radio
Opera Profile: "Before Night Falls"
December 28, 2010 - TheaterJones.com
Best of Year Lists: "Outstanding original performances or adaptations in 2010"
December 28, 2010 - TheaterJones.com
Best of 2010: Classical Music and Opera
October 17, 2010 - TheaterJones.com
Opera CD review: "Take Back the Night"
September 2010 - Opera News
Opera review: Before Night Falls, Fort Worth Opera
July 5, 2010 - National Review
Opera review: "An Opera Apart"
June 27, 2010 - Repeating Islands
Opera Profile: “Before Night Falls” opera in Fort Worth
June 26, 2010 - The Washington Post
Opera review: "Before Night Falls" in Fort Worth
June 9, 2010 - The Wall Street Journal
Opera review: Before Night Falls, Fort Worth Opera
June 7th, 2010 - My Big Gay Ears
Opera review: Before Night Falls, Fort Worth Opera
June 2, 2010 - Fort Worth Weekly
Opera review: "Go Before Night Falls"
June 2010 - Opera News
Opera Profile - "Long Night of the Soul"
May 31, 2010 - D Magazine (Dallas)
Opera review: Before Night Falls, Fort Worth Opera
May 30, 2010 - The Dallas Morning News
Opera review: "Bass Hall resounds with bravos for 'Before Night Falls'"
May 30, 2010 - TheaterJones.com
Opera review: "A Night to Remember"
May 30, 2010 - ARTS & SEEK
Opera review : BEFORE NIGHT FALLS World Premiere, Fort Worth Opera
May 28, 2010 - DALLAS VOICE.COM
Opera profile : "Before Before Night Falls"
September 2006 - THE GAY & LESBIAN REVIEW
Opera profile : "Dreaming Opera: Adapting Before Night Falls"
May 4, 2005 - THE NEW YORK TIMES
Opera workshop review: BEFORE NIGHT FALLS
April 28 - May 04, 2005 - GAY CITY NEWS
Opera Profile: Curtain Rises on “Before Night Falls”