Jorge Volpi transforms 'Tristana' into a modern opera that explores the search for freedom.

With music by Miguel Huertas and direction by Ricardo Campelo, Volpi's opera transports the characters of Galdós's novel (published in 1892) into the 21st century and explores, in the author's words, "the search for freedom" and the relevance of the female struggle against patriarchy.

In an interview, Volpi explains that from the beginning he was clear that he wanted to engage not only in dialogue with Galdós, but also with Buñuel's film.

Tristana presents the relationship between a young orphan girl and her elderly guardian, and a conservative artist who doesn't understand her yearning for freedom.

One of the biggest surprises in this process was discovering that the original text has a contemporary resonance because "many of the situations present there, which have to do with toxic relationships, with gender violence, could have acquired a contemporary tone," Volpi notes.

In this version, the musical universe is key : Don Lope (the tutor) becomes a singing teacher who exerts a dominant influence over his student, from which “this new version of Tristana comes,” the author summarizes.

The adaptation process involved challenges in balancing respect for the original text with the need to update it, so he maintains "many of the original dialogues , simply adapting them to the present," he continues.

Furthermore, the opera leans more towards Buñuel's version , with an ending "closer" to the film than to the novel, which is "much more conservative for the time" although with a "shade of ambiguity," he notes.

Volpi believes that setting the action in the present day reinforces the story's power because "precisely these themes that were already present in Galdós's time become even more relevant and topical in this temporal shift."

Furthermore, the work highlights the female body as a battlefield : Tristana is "a figure who, after suffering multiple forms of violence, is always, both in the novel and in the film, in search of her individual freedom," she emphasizes.

"So it's an act of resistance that Buñuel saw very clearly , and that's why he allowed for a more hopeful ending for her, and it's the same style of ending we decided to have," he notes.

Although his career has been marked by novels and essays, Volpi feels a deep connection with opera , one of his "great passions," and had already written the libretto for Cuatro Corridos , premiered in San Diego (USA) in 2013 and nominated for a Latin Grammy.

On this occasion, the opera connects with the themes that run throughout her literary work: power relations, "sometimes political power, sometimes power in personal relationships," something that Tristana "also reveals very clearly." The opera Tristana will then be performed in Spain.