Meet the Composer

Miquel del Aguila, photo by Donna Granata

Time and Again Barelas is a two-act opera for soloists, chorus and orchestra commissioned to celebrate the tricentennial of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Listen to an excerpt from Act I:

New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Guillermo Figueroa conducting

Visit the Peermusic Classical site for a detailed synopsis and more audio samples. A concert overture and choral suite are also available for performance.

Composer Miguel del Aguila writes:

When I received a call from the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in summer 2004, I was thrilled at the possibility of writing my third opera. Rather than writing an incidental work, I was more intrigued by writing a dramatic work that would be of timeless and universal interest. Later that summer, I sketched a synopsis of the story—a love story that lasts 500 years with the neighborhood of Barelas as background. Later, as Digby Wolfe and I began working on the libretto, the story and some character were revised. Although most character are fictional, the opera starts with the historical event in which Don Barela is murdered. His daughter Marcelina Barela is the central character of the story along with the man she keeps falling in love with: Ignacio. As I learned more about New Mexico's history I came to better appreciate the mosaic of cultures that form this unique place. I also heard accounts first hand from people who live in Albuquerque and Barelas. I soon noticed that historical events were still interpreted by New Mexican much along the lines of their individual ethnic ancestry. I realized that the turbulent past was only skin deep and that everyone expected something different from an opera that was to celebrate 300 years of Albuquerque. So, rather than avoiding the issue I faced it head on and made the two main characters, Marcelina and Ignacio, embody this historical struggle. For 500 years, these main character survive wars, massacres, economical depression, guilt and prejudice. In the end love and forgiveness, not more battles, help them come together and move forward into a bright future. Time and Again Barelas is centered on the Hispanic neighborhood of Barelas, but don't expect an historical documentary here! I use history only as the events affect the lives of the main characters. As writing this world, I was well aware that this was my personal tribute not only to Barelas and Albuquerque, but also to the universal Hispanic culture with which I deeply identify. Thus, my own final workds for the opera—which claim no poetic value—are my own message as expressed from the bottom of my heart.

The music of Time and Again Barelas is always very Latin and direct and at times dramatic or atmospheric. I did not try to write music that is true to a particular historical time or place. Instead, my music conveys the story and the place of Barelas in a cohesive unity of style and form. As with all my works, I never strive to sound "new," but merely to continue the operatic tradition with the kind of music that comes naturally to me as my own language. I use musical themes to represent events and places and to create familiar musical landscapes in which the action takes place. In this way the entire work is built from seven themes that transform themselves as time passes. The main music themes are: The Love, The Curse, The Rhythm of the City, Barelas, The Rage, The Redemption and The Hurt. The score contains plenty of the intellectual games and riddles that we composers devise to satisfy some subconscious need for deeper meaning or for pure amusement. For example, the seven themes correspond to the seven mythological golden cities that inspired Coronado's greed and quest for adventure; the triumphant theme that starts the finale of the opera is a transformation of the Curse theme, thus using the negative to achieve the positive. The opera ends with an uplifting variation of the originally sad Love theme, as love is the power that eventually sets us free from our own, self-devised curses.