A Trip Down The Amazon

In a premiere for the company, North Carolina Opera present their first ever Spanish language opera with Florencia en el Amazonas! Florencia Grimaldi is a star of the opera world, traveling in disguise down the Amazon to delight her hometown with a long-awaited concert, track down her long-lost butterfly hunter lover, and discover herself. Inspired by the writings of Gael Garcia Marquez, composer Daniel Catan draws on magical realism to weave a thoroughly enchanting and romantic tale.

What Is The Story?

Upon the steamship El Dorado, opera diva Florencia Gramaldi is heavily disguised as she heads back to Manaus, the place she left two decades before. Alongside her, the rest of the passengers include a warring couple, a biographer and the handsome captain's nephew. But Florencia has more on her mind than a homecoming concert. She is also looking for Cristobal, her lover who disappeared into the rainforest in search of butterflies many years ago. But will this ship reach safe port? And will she find Cristobal? The lines between fantasy and reality become increasingly blurred as they slowly sail on to an unknowable fate...