Esa-Pekka Salonen won the Best Opera GRAMMY® Award for Saariaho: Adriana Mater (Deutsche Grammophon). The 67th GRAMMY® Awards were announced live on 2 February at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena.
Salonen conducted the world premiere recording of Saariaho’s second opera with the San Francisco Symphony with mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron in the title role, soprano Axelle Fanyo as Refka, tenor Nicholas Phan as Yonas and bass-baritone Christopher Purves as Tsargo. Peter Sellars directed the June 2023 staged production.
With libretto by Lebanese-born French writer Amin Maalouf, Adriana Mater is an intensely moving work exploring the relationship between a mother and her son in a war-torn country as they navigate the violence that defines their past and present, and threatens to claim their future.
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Photo: Benjamin Suomela