An all-Iberian program is the ideal setting to host another side of Ravel’s creativity—opera. Spanish-tinged numbers are scattered throughout 19th– and 20th-century European music. Many were conceived for operas based on stories set in Spain or to characterize one of its characters. This program offers a bunch of such arias, picked up from Rossini, Verdi, Bizet, and Massenet. Then there is also some real Spain, seen from within—melodies by Albéniz, Granados, and Falla. The aria from Ravel’s L’heure espagnole falls somewhere in the middle. It was written for an opera set in Spain but by a composer of Basque origins on his mother’s side.
