The opera tells the story of playwright Federico García Lorca and his lover and muse, Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu. A unique aspect of this opera is that the part of male Lorca is played by a woman. Subtitled "an Opera in Three Images," Ainadamar is told in reverse in a series of flashbacks, and involves Lorca's opposition to the Falange, accusations of homosexuality, and his subsequent murder.

The first recording came out on Deutsche Grammophon on May 9, 2006. It immediately sped to the top of the classical music Billboard charts. 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.

Both the recording and the opera met immediate critical acclaim. The recording has won two Grammy Awards: Best Opera Recording of 2006, and Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Like much of Golijov's work, the opera heavily incorporates Arab and Jewish idioms, as well as Spanish flamenco sounds — in fact, there is a flamenco guitar section incorporated into the orchestra.

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. Lorca becomes a martyr in the name of freedom of artistic expression. 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, like in the casting of Lorca as a trouser-role, in a manner parallel to other impetuous youths of opera, such as Cherubino or Octavian. These characteristics have allowed Ainadamar to begin a successful performance run as a non-staged or semi-staged concert work. Most critically, it appears that performances by a younger generation of singers may prompt an assimilation into the canon — and with it, an integration of the Ibero-American musical languages it spouses into Classical music — through upcoming presentations in major conservatories like the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under Carmen Helena Téllez (2007) and the Curtis Institute of Music under Corrado Rovaris (2008). A concert version is scheduled for Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in December 2008, with Shaw and O'Connor.

The performers listed are those on the 2006 Deutsche Grammophon recording.

FOB (1980) · Family Devotions (1981) · Rich Relations (1986) · M. Butterfly (1988) · Face Value (1993) · Golden Child (1996) · Peer Gynt (1998, with Stephan Muller; from Ibsen) · Tibet Through the Red Box (2004, from Sis) · Yellow Face (2007)

The Dance and the Railroad (1981) · The House of Sleeping Beauties (1983, from Kawabata) · The Sound of a Voice (1983) · As the Crow Flies (1986) · Bondage (1992) · Trying to Find Chinatown (1996) · Bang Kok (1996) · Merchandising (1999) · Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet (2001) · The Great Helmsman (2007)

Blind Alleys (1985, with Kimball) · M. Butterfly (1993) · Golden Gate (1994) · The Lost Empire (2001) · Possession (2002, with Jones and LaBute, from Byatt)

1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1988, with Glass and Sirlin) · The Voyage (1992, with Glass) · The Silver River (1997, with Sheng) · Aida (2000, with Woolverton & Falls, John and Rice, from Verdi) · Flower Drum Song (2001, with Rodgers and Hammerstein, from Fields, Hammerstein, and Lee) · Ainadamar (2003, with Golijov) · The Sound of a Voice (2004, with Glass) · Tarzan (2006, with Collins, from Burroughs) · Alice in Wonderland (2007, with Chin, from Carroll) · The Fly (2008, with Shore)