Omar Rayo

My Favorite Artist Colombian engraver, sculptor and painter. 20 January 1928   -    7 June 2010

Omar Rayo has been one of the most active and important Colombian artists during the last 60 year.

Omar Rayo was born in Roldanillo Valle, Colombia. He began working as an artist in 1945, then as an illustrator for magazines and newspapers in Bogotá but later as many Colombian artists do, he spent much of his professional life outside the country; he lived for many years in Mexico and New York.

Omar Rayo shows in his prints and paintings, geometric and art that belongs both to the ancient past. Using Indian ancestry forms, Omar Rayo discovered new ways to execute geometric visual art like old cultures in America.

Rayo's work is dedicated to the geometric figure without being abstract. His original style is with clear images and painted concrete objects. Is a geometric-optical artist who loves squares, rectangles and zigzag lines expressed in white, black and red.

In my personal opinion; Omar Rayo demonstrates that geometric art is not necessarily cold and rational; it belongs to any time, past and future. Omar Rayo uses lines and form of indigenous ancestors to discover new ways for representing visual and geometric patterns. You could find in his art, very voluptuous shapes, happiness playful and sensuality.

 

One of the principal reasons to choose this artist is because I was born in Roldanillo too and I have always admired his work.

His hard work and inspiration were so big that he was able to influence the construction of the Rayo’s museum, with his personal effort, Colombian government and other supporters, The museum was founded in his hometown Roldanillo in 1981 to establish a site for exposing his works. The museum was designed by the Mexican architect Leopoldo Goout and opened with a collection of 2,000 Rayo's artwork and some 500 other Latin American artists' works. The museum contains a library, many exposition modules, a graphic arts workshop and a theater.

 

Detailed records

Ópera

• Alahor in Granata Donizetti Director: Josep Pons CD: Almaviva (DS 0125) Julio 1999

• Il barbiere di Siviglia Rossini Director: Ralf Weikert CD: Live performance (1997) Nightingale (NC00402) Octubre 2004

• Il barbiere di Siviglia Rossini Director: Gianluigi Gelmetti DVD: Live performance (2005) Decca (074 3111 5 DH2) Noviembre 2005

• La Cenerentola Rossini Director: Carlo Rizzi CD: Live performance (2000). Rossini Opera Festival e Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Pesaro Agosto 2001

• Le Comte Ory Rossini Director: Jesús López-Cobos CD: Deutsche Grammophon (477 502-0) Agosto 2004

• L'Etoile du Nord Meyerbeer Director: Wladimir Jurowski CD: Marco Polo Diciembre 1997

• Falstaff Verdi Director: Riccardo Muti DVD (Region 2): DVOPFAL (TDK UK LTD) Live performance filmed in Busseto, 2001

• Mitridate, re di Ponto, Mozart. Director: Christophe Rousset CD: Decca (289 460 772-2) Abril 1999

• Nina o sia La pazza per amore Paisiello Director: Riccardo Muti CD: Ricordi (RFCD 2010) Julio 2000

• Semiramide Rossini Director Marcello Panni CD: Nightingale Classics (NC 207013-2) 2001

• Il Tutore Burlato Martin y Soler Director: Miguel Harth-Bedoya CD: Bongiovanni (GB 2175/76-2) Octubre 1995

Oratorio y música sacra

• Cantatas, Vol.2 Rossini Director: Riccardo Chailly CD: Decca (466 328-2 DH) Abril 2001

• Messa Solenne Verdi Director: Riccardo Chailly CD: Decca (467 280-2) Diciembre 2000

• Stabat Mater Rossini Director: Gianluigi Gelmetti CD: Agora (AG 161) Julio 1998

• Le Tre Ore dell'Agonia del Nostro Signore Gesu Cristo Niccolo Zingarelli Director: Pierangelo Pelucchi CD: Agora (AG 018) Noviembre 1995

Recital

• Canto al Perú (con Ernesto Palacio) Piano: Samuele Pala CD: Bongiovanni (GB 2529-2) 1997

• Rossiniana Rossini Director: Manlio Benzi CD: Agora (AG 164) Mayo 1998

• Vesselina Kasarova Arias & Duets Rossini Director: Arthur Fagen CD: RCA (74321 57131 2) Marzo 1999

• Rossini Arias Director: Riccardo Chailly CD: Decca 470 024-2 Enero 2002

• Una Furtiva Lagrima Bellini, Donizetti Director: Riccardo Frizza CD: Decca (473 440-2 DH) Abril 2003

• Juan Diego Flórez: Great Tenor Arias Verdi, Gluck, Rossini Director: Carlo Rizzi CD: Decca Classics (475 618-7) Septiembre 2004

• Sentimiento Latino Director: Miguel Harth-Bedoya CD: Decca (000629502) 2006

• Flórez para Chabuca (con Rubén Flórez, su padre): Quadrasonic Ideas y Morrison Music & Video.

Recordings and awards

Since 2001 Juan Diego has recorded 8 solo albums, 12 complete operas on CD and 11 on DVD, and made another 7 albums that fall into other categories, such as cantatas and oratorios.  Details

 

Juan Diego has received a number of awards, including the Rossini d’Oro, the Abbiati Prize, given by the Italian Association of Music Critics, the Tiberini d’Oro, the ISO de Oro, the Opera Award and the Aureliano Pertile, Bellini, Francesco Tamagno and Plácido Domingo Awards.

He has also been recognized with the following honors:

2002 – Distinguished Visitor of the National University of Engineering (Peru)

2003 – Honorary Member of the University of the Pacific (Peru)

2004 – Order of Merit, Grand Cross (Peru)

2004 – Honorary Professor of the University of San Martín De Porres (Peru)

2005 – Honorary Professor of the National Music Conservatory (Peru)

2007 – Order of the Sun, Grand Cross (Peru)

2009 – Honorary Professor of the UPC (Peruvian University of Applied Sciences)

Some Images

Cultural significance and influences

Juan Diego has always maintained a close relationship with his native country.
Peru has awarded him its very highest distinction: the Order of the Sun, Grand Cross.

He also sponsors a foundation in Peru with the aim of encouraging the creation of children’s and youth orchestras and choirs on a national level. The project’s central aim is to help poor and vulnerable children and young people to avoid the many dangers they face in their day-to-day lives: drugs, delinquency, exploitation and prostitution.

Go to the foundation web site

His hobbies include football, tennis, cooking and composition. Juan Diego has written two pieces in the Peruvian genre known as the Huayno. The first is the Huayno Peruano Navideño, which was performed in the Vienna Konzerthaus in 2007 by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Boys Choir. The second, Santo, was written for the album of the same name in 2009.
 

Huayno Peruano Navideño

Santo is part of Juan Diego's CD "Santo", which contains sacred songs and arias. Santo is a composition by Juan Diego Florez, who has also orchestrated and arranged the song. It's sung in spanish and quechua and includes andean instruments.

Text:
Santo Señor Dios del universo.
Llenos están los cielos y la tierra de tu gloria
Samtom tukuy pachapa Apun.
Kusi qillpuykim llimparin kaypi, hanaq pachapipas.
Hosanna en el cielo.
Bendito es el que viene en nombre del Señor.
Haylli kachun hanaq pachapi, Perú Antisuyupipas.
Hosana en el las alturas y en los Andes del Perú.
Saminchasqam Diospa sutinpi hamuwanchik. Willkam!
Bendito es el que viene en nombre del Señor.
Amén

Overview

At the beginning, Juan Diego focused on pop, rock and Peruvian music. He wrote his own songs and sang in piano bars, frequented by his schoolmates in Lima. In 1989, the young singer won Peru’s first Festival of Song for Peace.

In 1990, he started his professional studies at Peru’s National Conservatory of Music. At that time, he didn’t have in mind to be a classical musician. But the experiences of those first months were the beginning for his vocation. Shortly after beginning his studies, Juan Diego began taking singing lessons with Andrés Santa María, director of Peru’s Coro Nacional. The Coro had a decisive part in his musical development, giving him the invaluable experience of performing music by the greatest classical composers at a professional level. He couldn’t have hoped for a better start.

In 1993 Juan Diego won a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He studied there until 1996, and had the opportunity to sing in a number of fully staged complete operas.

In 1996, Juan Diego auditioned in Bologna for the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Since then, opera houses around the world set their sights on the young tenor, including the most famous of all: La Scala. Juan Diego made his La Scala debut on 7 December 1996. He has appeared at all the world’s opera houses, concert halls and music festivals, including the Metropolitan in New York.
 

In 2007, Juan Diego made history at La Scala when he broke a 70-year-old taboo and gave the first encore in the theatre since 1933, for the audience’s delight. The aria in question was “Ah! mes amis” from Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment, renowned for its nine high Cs. He repeated the feat a few months later, in 2008, at the Met, after a number of years in which no encores had been heard.

La Fille du Regiment - Ah mes amis

Juan Diego Florez

Juan Diego Florez was born in Lima Peru on 13 January 1973

His voice is classified as light lyric tenor

About tenor voice

About light lyric tenor

His father, Rubén Flórez, was a singer and a classic guitar player, who specialized in performing Peruvian waltzes from Chabuca Granda. Juan Diego inherited his father’s vocal talent and his love for Peruvian and Latin American music. His mother, Maria Teresa, another music-lover, gave him all the support encouraging him to do musical studies and to achieve all his goals.

Juan Diego Flórez sings with his father

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director
Juan Diego Flores, Tenor

La Flor De La Canela, Chabuca Granda