2022: Opera, music and theater

After the confinement derived from the pandemic, which was in force from March 2019 to the end of 2021, at the beginning of 2022 we began to go to public shows again. Of those that in the year I want to highlight the following.

The thirst of comets. Opera, joint work of the composer Antonio Juan-Marcos and the writer Mónica Lavín. It is inspired by his historical novel I, the worst which addresses the life of the Hieronymite nun and great poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), within the framework of the reality of the viceregal era.

The story is told – it sings through five characters: the soprano Cecilia Eguiarte, who plays Sor Juan Inés de la Cruz; the mezzo-soprano, Frida Portillo, to the viceroy María Luisa Manrique; the contralto Araceli Pérez Martínez, to Juana de San José, Sor Juana’s slave; the tenor Enrique Guzmán, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora and the baritone Rodrigo Urrutia, Father Antonio Núñez de Miranda, Sor Juana’s confessor. Netzahualcóyotl Room, University Cultural Center-UNAM, Mexico City.

The Silence of Sound. Show by the director Alondra de la Parra and the mime Gabriela Muñoz. The music by the Mining Symphony, directed by de la Parra, the performance is by Muñoz and the audiovisual creation by Mariona Omedas. A story is told, with autobiographical features of the director, of a person, whose life changes when she discovers the beauty of music.

Alondra de la Parra’s direction and Gabriela Muñoz’s performance are memorable. The staging is very well achieved, it is a whole, where each element is in its place. Neither removes the presence of the other, the music is there, the acting and also the setting with the images and lights.

The musical program: Claude Debussy (1862-1918); Bela Bartok (1881-1945); Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971); Weber (1786-1826); Berlioz (1803-1869); Massenet (1842-1912); Sibelius (1865-1957); Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953); Federico Ibarra (1946) and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Palace of Fine Arts. Mexico City.

Mother Courage and her children. Play that Bertolt Brecht wrote in 1939 during his exile in Sweden. The action takes place within the framework of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) between Catholics and Protestants. Mother Courage is a street vendor who, in order to survive, follows the Swedish army in her wagon, full of goods. Her children accompany her. In these circumstances she takes advantage of war and suffering. The version and direction is by Luis de Tavira. Production of the Telón de Arena Company, from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Hellenic Cultural Center, Mexico City.

The party of the deceased. Play by Martín Zapata, who also directs. Alejando (Erando González), the family doctor, announces that Mauricio (Arturo Beristain) has died. Leonor (Mariana Giménez) his partner mourns his loss. What is strange and unheard of is that Mauricio, after death, continues to speak. When asked by Leonor, the doctor tells her that there is no doubt about death. Production of the National Theater Company (CNT). Theater of the Arts of the National Center for the Arts (CENART), Mexico City.

Krapp’s Last Tape. Work of the Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Nobel Prize for Literature 1969. In 1958 he wrote this monologue. The work tells the story of Krapp who has been recording his life on tapes for more than 30 years, to record it. On turning 69, he decides to listen to the recording of the day he turned 39. In the notebook where he has written down the order of the tapes, he finds where the one from that night is. In the darkness of a dimly lit room, he turns on the recorder and listens to the tape. Direction by Sandra Félix and acting by Luis de Tavira. La Gruta, Hellenic Cultural Center, Mexico City.

Fury. The work of contemporary German playwrights Lutz Hübner and Sarah Nemitz, the Spanish translation is by Stefanie Weiss and Luis de Tavira and the stage direction by Luis de Tavira. The story tells that Heiko Braubach, a civil servant and mayoral candidate, runs over Enno, a young drug addict. He stops to help the injured. The investigation, which collects the testimony of those who witnessed the accident, determines that there is no responsibility of Heiko in the facts. The performances of Stefanie Weiss, Rodrigo Virago and Juan Carlos Vives are natural and believable. Theater of the Arts of the National Center for the Arts (CENART).

@RubenAguilar