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La Pasión según San Marcos
Osvaldo Golijov in conversation with Ilan Stavans
With a special performance by Jessica Rivera and pianist Molly Morkoski
APRIL 29, 2007 6:00 PM
THE CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY

"Like Rembrandt recorded the Jews, I want to record the Christians," writes composer Osvaldo Golijov of his work La Pasión según San Marco, which took the music world by storm when it premiered in 2000. "I cannot aspire to be Rembrandt but if at least one section of the Passion has the truth about Christianity that Rembrandt's paintings have about Judaism, I'll be all right—that's enough." Golijov talks with writer Ilan Stavans about what it means for a Jewish artist to tell the Passion story; the conversation will conclude with a performance of an aria from the piece by acclaimed soprano Jessica Rivera.

OSVALDO GOLIJOV grew up in an Eastern European Jewish household in La Plata, Argentina. Recordings of his music include Yiddishbbuk, the opera Ainadamar (winner of two Grammy awards), and three CDs featuring the Kronos Quartet: The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, Caravan, and Nuevo. The European Music festival commissioned La Pasión según San Marcos in 2000 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach's death. In 2006, Lincoln Center presented a sold out Festival called "The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov", featuring multiple performances of his major works, his chamber music, and late nights of Tango and Klezmer. Golijov is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, among other awards.

ILAN STAVANS is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and, forthcoming, On Love. He is the editor of, among other work, The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, the 3-volume Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories, and The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature. The movie My Mexican Shivah, produced by John Sayles, is based on his novella "Morirse esta en hebreo." His oeuvre has been translated into a dozen languages.

JESSICA RIVERA has sung the part of Nuria in Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar at Lincoln Center, the Barbican Centre, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Ojai and Ravinia Festivals. She reprised the role for the Grammy-winning recording of the work by Deutsche Grammophon. More recently, she created the role of Kumudha in the new John Adams opera A Flowering Tree. She has been a featured soloist in past productions of Golijov's La Pasión según San Marcos and will appear in Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival production this summer.

Pianist MOLLY MORKOSKI has performed as soloist and collaborative artist throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. She has been a featured soloist on the Making Music Series at Carnegie Hall, and the Tanglewood, Bang-on-a-Can, and Pacific Rim Festivals, as well as appearing as soloist with the Raleigh and Asheville Symphony Orchestras. She has collaborated with the New York Philharmonic Chamber Players, St. Louis Symphony Chamber Players, New World Symphony, Speculum Musicae, and the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society.

Osvaldo Golijov photo © Alejandra Golijov