Lyric Opera's 'El último sueño de Frida y Diego' goes beyond Fridamania

This Spanish-language opera by Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz immerses the figures of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in a wider whole.

Mar. 22, 2026 at 6:38pm

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The contemporary, Spanish-language opera 'El último sueño de Frida y Diego' at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, from composers Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz, begins in 1957 with the figure of Diego Rivera standing at the grave of Frida Kahlo on the Day of the Dead. The opera imagines a scenario where a skeletronic Catrina, Keeper of the Dead, helps a reluctant Kahlo decide to return to life for a day. The opera avoids straight biography and instead looks at the relationship between the two famous Mexican artists through a prism of expressionism and magical realism, merging their artistic outputs with their environments, both living and dead.

Why it matters

The opera broadens the thematic scope beyond the famously tempestuous relationship between Kahlo and Rivera, forging an immersive and enveloping experience that is less focused on tabloid-style details and more on the mortality of artists and the way their work and lives create a vivid, cumulative tapestry.

The details

Directed by Lorena Maza, the opera features Alfredo Daza as Diego Rivera and Daniela Mack as Frida Kahlo. The set design by Jorge Ballina is inspired by traditional Day of the Dead iconography as well as the artwork of Kahlo and Rivera. The libretto by Nilo Cruz avoids straight biography in favor of a more expressionistic and magical realist approach, introducing a counter-tenor character called Leonardo, an actor who impersonated Greta Garbo, as an avatar for art itself. Composer Gabriela Lena Frank's music fuses traditional orchestral instrumentation with warm instruments like the marimba, creating a unique and organic sound.

  • The opera premiered in San Diego in 2022.
  • It will receive a new production at New York's Metropolitan Opera later in 2026.

The players

Gabriela Lena Frank

The composer of the opera, who is the child of a Lithuanian Jew and a Peruvian mother, and whose music fuses traditional orchestral instrumentation with warm instruments like the marimba.

Nilo Cruz

The librettist of the opera, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'Anna in the Tropics'.

Alfredo Daza

The singer who portrays Diego Rivera in the opera.

Daniela Mack

The singer who portrays Frida Kahlo in the opera.

Ana María Martínez

The singer who portrays the skeletronic Catrina, Keeper of the Dead, in the opera.

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What they’re saying

“What is most striking at first is how deftly the opera, directed here by Lorena Maza, avoids straight biography and the probing of the famously tempestuous relationship between these two great Mexican artists (who married, divorced and married again), presumably to avoid going back over territory overly familiar from stage and screen, 'Frida' and all.”

— Chris Jones, Theater critic

“Rather, the librettist Cruz (best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'Anna in the Tropics') looks at the relationship through a prism both expressionistic and magical realist, merging the artistic outputs of these two humans with their environments, both living and, well, dead/undead.”

— Chris Jones, Theater critic

What’s next

The opera will receive a new production at New York's Metropolitan Opera later in 2026.

The takeaway

By avoiding straight biography and instead taking an expressionistic and magical realist approach, 'El último sueño de Frida y Diego' at the Lyric Opera broadens the thematic scope beyond the famous Kahlo-Rivera relationship, creating an immersive and enveloping experience that explores the mortality of artists and the way their work and lives create a vivid, cumulative tapestry.