by Brenda Lowder
Daily Lobo
When composer and pianist Miguel del Aguila speaks of music, his voice noticeably warms to the subject.
"I never questioned it," he said. "I always saw myself as a musician."
Del Aguila said he is tackling one of the most challenging projects of his career as he composes Albuquerque's tricentennial opera, Time and Again Barelas. This new, fully staged opera was commissioned by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation and the Downtown Action Team to commemorate Albuquerque's tricentennial in 2006.
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Del Aguila collaborated with former Laugh-In writer and UNM professor, Digby Wolfe. David Vega Chavez is the director, and the symphony chorus, led by conductor Roger Melone, will be singing at the premiere performances next April.
Although largely fictional, the opera begins with the historical event in which Don Barelas is murdered. His daughter, Marcelina Barelas, is the main character of the piece along with her love interest, Don Ignacio. Cursed to live forever, the young lovers struggle through 500 years of history as they witness it all happening around them and find they are enemies.
"Their radical differences represent the ethnic and cultural diversity of Barelas' turbulent past," del Aguila said. "The opera ends with a message of hope and universal love."
Del Aguila said his job was to tell the story in a fair way.
"The challenge was one of the things I liked," he said.
He began work on Time and Again Barelas two years ago.
Del Aguila is used to high expectations for his work. His catalog of over 80 works includes opera, orchestral, choral, solo and chamber works as well as incidental music for theater and film. International premieres of his works have been broadcast worldwide by radio and television. To date, his works have been recorded on 17 different CDs by major labels and artists.
"I believe in setting my own high moral standards according to my beliefs, and doing what I came into this world to do, which is to write music," he said.
Del Aguila disagrees that his music could be labeled as minimalist.
"I don't like when people put labels on my music," he said. "There is an obsessive quality in my music that is latent."
He said his music has evolved over time.
"It has become perhaps more Latin in flavor, more abashedly rhythmic and farther from the restraints of 'classical music,'" he said.
Del Aguila will perform at Popejoy Hall on Oct. 28 and 29.
