Arias Florentinas, Op. 15

The Arias began with a month De La Chica spent in Italy in the summer of 2021. There, walking the streets, he saw a poster announcing a vocal recital in what he describes as “a very old chapel,” and which was the first public concert he saw since the beginning of the pandemic. “Maybe it was the ambience of the chapel, the city, and the Italian arias that gave me inspiration for the cycle,” he says. And the Poemas de bar became a model for the new music. “Because the Poemas were conversations in a bar, ”De La Chica explains, “I decided to capture everyday conversations in Florence. I ‘stole’ some stories—for example, when I was on line to buy tickets for the Campanile, or in a coffee shop,” he would note bits of conversations he overheard. He tells one story about this: “I still remember around 2 a.m., there was one guy sitting on a bridge over the Arno. I think he was drunk.” De La Chica heard him saying to passersby, “look at the light of the river.” The composer thought the man was trying to jump, an experiencehe describes as “a little scary.” — George Grella