THE OPERA ON FRIDA KAHLO, WHO HAD BEEN THROUGH HELL
The S.F. opera house was like a trip to Mexico City, starting with the lobby and numerous patrons in flower-capped formals, thanks to a contingent that had never been to opera before. Then came the new work in Spanish, and a fantasy based on the real-life couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, both of them art-world, New-World luminaries—-their loves, their spats, their splits, their reconciliation. For the 50-year-old composer with a strong lyrical bent, this was a promising initial venture…