Ainadamar has features of both an opera and a passion play, as it examines the powerful symbolic role Lorca has embodied after his death, especially among other artists.
The connections with the Baroque passion musical concept also occur structurally, as the work evolves as a series of arias, recurring choruses and dance genres.
The symbolic aspect was emphasized visually by Peter Sellars in his staging for Santa Fe Opera.
Ainadamar also connects with previous operatic traditions, as in the casting of Lorca as a trouser role, in a manner parallel to other impetuous youths of opera, such as Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) or Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier).
These characteristics have allowed Ainadamar to begin a successful performance run as a non-staged or semi-staged concert work.
The poet emerges from the past to sing of the pure love Pineda represented to him even as a child, when he would see her statue in Granada.
This consisted in a brand new production by the festivals of Granada, Santander and Oviedo under Luis de Tavira and conductor Corrado Rovaris.
In a review, Rowena Smith of the Guardian called Golijov's music "a celebration of the feminine" but criticized the "unnecessary imposition" of imagery relating to crucifixion.
It was recorded by the artists for whom it was written, including Dawn Upshaw as Xirgu, Kelley O'Connor as Lorca, Jessica Rivera as Nuria, and conducted by Robert Spano with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and women of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.