Lorca Unchained. Mauricio Sotelo’s El Público and the (New) Spanish Contemporary Opera

Abstract

Mauricio Sotelo’s El Público is a polemical representation not only of the Federico García Lorca’s homosexual and ethically-engaged last oeuvre, but also of the political, aesthetic, and technical possibilities of flamenco traditions in a contemporary music work. Following García Lorca’s play, and as its title claims, Sotelo seeks in his Opera under the sand to leave the mask behind and reach the highpoint of his 20-plus years of experience in blending different sound cultures: from his academic seminars in Vienna in the 1980s, when he met Luigi Nono in Berlin shortly before the composer’s death, up to his current investigations into the recorded voice and its electronic usefulness today. Moreover, in order to consider and discuss how this work could be understood as a new paradigm of Spanish contemporary opera, we should also note its great cultural impact.