Bradley Kynard stars as Ramiro, in Opera Academy of California’s production of Maurice Ravel’s hilarious L’heure espagnole, a farce about a lusty Spanish wife juggling lovers while her husband is preoccupied with clockwork mechanisms. Hilarity ensues!
Ramiro, the postman, (‘muleteer’ in Ravel’s Spanish setting), waits in Torquemada’s clock shop to have his watch repaired while Torquemada goes out to tend the municipal clocks. Concepcion, Torquemada’s wife, planning a series of assignations while her husband makes his rounds, is initially frustrated by the presence of Ramiro. She decides to make the most of Ramiro’s brawn by hiding her lovers in her husband’s grandfather clock collection and pursuading the clueless Ramiro to rearrange the furniture by moving clocks first upstairs to her bedroom then out again. All that exertion turns Concepcion’s attentions toward Ramiro.
Bradley made his San Francisco Opera debut as Daggoo in Moby Dick and with Opera San Jose as Marchese d’Obigny in La Traviata. Previous roles include Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana, Remendado in Carmen and Loard Cecil in Roberto Devereux. Bradley is a member of San Francisco Opera chorus.
Bradley Kynard