FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS

March 2012, Opera Colorado

January 2013, Utah Opera

Directed by Jose Maria Condemi

"The whole evening is set on one small steam-powered riverboat as it carries a pack of troubled lovers down the Amazon River in the early 1900s. But the designers open it up, mostly with the help of giant moving images behind the singers. Waves ripple, clouds pass, a bird flies off, giant daisies bloom. The backdrop has a streaming, digital feel that makes it part-screensaver, part James Cameron movie.

"It's rare to credit the good work of an opera's production team before the singers, but it's now or never: Sets by Phillip Lienau, projections by Aaron Rhyne, lighting by James D. Sale, all working under the no-dreams-barred direction of Jose Maria Condemi." - The Denver Post

"Philip Lienau's set is imaginative and visually stunning, but Aaron Rhyne's background screen projections, depicting the Amazon River and the city of Manaus, Brazil, are the most extraordinary elements. The storm sequence at the end of Act 1 is especially thrilling." - Boulder Daily Camera