The artist and the opera

Judging by the individuals involved, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra offers a compelling reason to visit the Ordway Center this week. The soloist is soprano Dawn Upshaw, one of the orchestra's artistic associates; the conductor is Joana Carneiro, music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. And they will be performing new songs with music by Gabriela Frank and lyrics by Nilo Cruz, a Pulitzer winner for drama. The subject of those songs: Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Upshaw met Frank several years ago at Carnegie Hall's Professional Training Workshop for singers and composers. They hit it off, Upshaw saying that Frank's work was "the kind of music that didn't seem to work very hard to move listeners." The composer's mix of Latin and Eastern European influences naturally had a dense texture and yet a lyrical voice. So when Upshaw was mulling possible commissions with the SPCO, Frank "was on the short list." It didn't hurt that Carneiro is a favorite conductor and friend of both women.

"It just was one of those projects that seemed to happen naturally," Upshaw said. "It always feels good when things evolve that way."

Latin roots

Frank has been composer-in-residence with several American symphony orchestras and currently serves in that capacity in San Francisco. The Boston Symphony featured her work at last summer's Tanglewood Festival. A member of Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009. Her mother is Peruvian (of Chinese descent) and her American father comes from Lithuanian Jewish extraction. Both strains show up in her music, which in some cases has the flavor of both tango and Romany folk songs.

"Bartok's my hero," she said. "Why I was struck by Eastern European music was a lot of the rhythms and motifs that are employed you find in South American music."

The Frida songs ("The Keeper and the Dove") are part of an opera on which she and Cruz are working. It takes place following Frida's death, as she recalls friends and places. It also draws inspiration from the Day of the Dead festival. Upshaw will sing four songs, alternating between Frida and Catrina (the Lady of Death). The St. Paul performance gives Frank and Cruz a chance to assess the songs in full performance.

Upshaw, though, is not simply a test pilot. Frank said that she and Cruz wrote moments specifically inspired by the soprano's capabilities.

"She's an amazing natural actress," Frank said. "She can be very mercurial and switch easily between the two characters."

Kahlo, whose ancestry also mixed European and Latin heritage, was best known for her self-portraits. She and husband Diego Rivera were celebrated for their work and their stormy relationship. She cut a wide swath in Mexican consciousness, and Frank wanted to capture that in the music.

"They took a lot of pleasure in the indigenous culture of Mexico and collected a lot of folk art," Frank said. "So the second movement has a touch of the folklore flavor."

Frank said she and Cruz continue to work on the opera, with a residency at Whittier College outside Los Angeles. If she has a timetable, she says she's "not at liberty to divulge it."