Magdalena

Composer/lyricists, Robert Wright and George Forrest, collaborated with the great Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, to create this "musical adventure" for Broadway.

Magdalena is set along the Magdalena River in Colombia, where emerald-mining Indians labor for their faraway European masters. The conflict between Christianity and Indian folk religion is explored in intertwining stories of a young Indian couple and a populist uprising against the tyranny of the absentee mine owners.

Reminiscent of such great "Broadway operas" as Candide, Porgy and Bess and Street Scene, Magdalena features challenging and beautiful solo and choral work for a cast of trained "legit" singers, in an enthralling epic that spans the globe from the cafes of Paris to the lush jungles of South America. Like Kismet, its soaring, classically based score makes it an ideal show for opera companies, symphony orchestras (in concert presentation) or any group catering to an audience of classical music lovers.