<<  -- 4 --  Maria Nockin    RIVER SPIRITS

The story deals with a group of people, including a famous diva, Florencia Grimaldi, voyaging down the Amazon from Leticia, Colombia, to Manaus, Brazil, on the steamship El Dorado in the early 1900s. Manaus, the site of a famous opera house, is nine hundred miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean and is surrounded by jungle wilderness.

As the opera opens a river creature who can appear in various forms, Riolobo, introduces us to the passengers as they embark for Manaus: Paula and Alvaro, a married couple seeking a resurgence of the love they once had for each other; Rosalba, a journalist writing a biography of Florencia; the ship's captain who loves his job; his nephew, Arcadio, who is much less enthusiastic about his work on the ship; and finally, Florencia, who arrives late and is barely able to jump onto the boat as it is leaving the pier [listen -- CD1 track 2, 0:00-0:53].

Continue >>

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.