El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego:
Met Live Opera

The Mary D. Fisher Theatre is honored to be the home for the Met Live Opera programs for the 2025-2026 season, presented by the Sedona International Film Festival.

The season concludes with Frank’s “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego” live via simulcast on Saturday, May 30 at 10 a.m. and the encore presentation on Wednesday, June 3 at 3 p.m.

Plan to come early as John Steinbrunner will lead a pre-opera talk one hour before the LIVE production on Saturday.

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2025–26 Live in HD season comes to a close with a live transmission of American composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera, a magical-realist portrait of Mexico’s painterly power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz.

Fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth, the story depicts Frida, sung by leading mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, leaving the underworld on the Day of the Dead and reuniting with Diego, portrayed by baritone Carlos Álvarez. The famously feuding pair briefly relive their tumultuous love, embracing both the passion and the pain before bidding the land of the living a final farewell.

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Met-premiere staging of Frank’s opera, a “confident, richly imagined score” (The New Yorker) that “bursts with color and fresh individuality” (Los Angeles Times). The vibrant new production, taking enthusiastic inspiration from Frida and Diego’s paintings, is directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker.

ACT I
On the Day of the Dead, villagers gather in a cemetery to honor departed loved ones and summon them to return from the underworld. Diego calls out to Frida, but his reverie is interrupted by an old woman selling flowers. The old woman reveals herself as La Catrina, Keeper of the Dead. In Mictlān, Catrina summons Frida to arise and return to visit Diego, but Frida refuses. Frida notices a young actor, Leonardo, who wants to go back dressed as Greta Garbo to please a fan of the actress. He encourages Frida to return for the chance to paint a new Frida without pain or anguish. Frida decides she will return to the world of the living. As Diego continues to summon Frida from above, she and the other departed souls begin their journey.

ACT II
In the world of the living, Diego is bereft of inspiration. Frida suddenly appears to him. She is overjoyed to be without pain and part of the vibrant life around her. Diego pleads for an embrace, which Frida cannot give. Diego leads Frida back to her home, Casa Azul, where she must confront the realities of her past life and the limitations of her return. She embraces him and is racked by the returning pain of her living existence. When dawn breaks, it is time for her to return to the underworld. Diego pleads for the gods to call him back with her. As Frida and Diego approach the underworld, Catrina cries out to Mictlantecuhtli, god of the underworld, who appears and brings Diego into the world of the departed. Frida and Diego are united for eternity.

The 2025-2026 Met Live Opera season in Sedona is generously sponsored by Chris Fladlien.

The Met Live Opera’s “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Saturday, May 30 at 10 a.m. (live simulcast) with an encore on Wednesday, June 3 at 3 p.m. The pre-opera talk will take place one hour before the live Saturday simulcast.

Tickets are $25 general admission, $22 for Film Festival members, and $15 for students. Tickets are available in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office or by calling 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona.