For the first time since November 2019, Opera Santa Barbara (OSB) takes the stage at the Granada Theater, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3, opening its 2021-22 season with a live production, and company premiere, of the scintillating Mariachi opera, “Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon).”
A Mariachi opera is, as you might have guessed, an opera that employs the musical forces of a mariachi band, a regional Mexican ensemble (the region being Western Mexico) dating back to the 18th century, if not before.
A contemporary mariachi group includes up to eight violins, two trumpets, and one or more guitars, among which you might find a high-pitched vihuela and an acoustic bass guitar called a guitarrón. All the players take turns singing lead and doing backup vocals.
The mariachi opera references, and sometimes quotes, popular music and folksongs — rather than classical music — but is properly called an “opera,” rather than an “operetta” (to which a zarzuela might be compared), owing to the seriousness of its subject matter. I have tentatively located the genre somewhere between the John Gay-Johann Pepusch “Beggar’s Opera” and The Who’s “Tommy.”
“Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (2010),” by José “Pepe” Martínez (1941-2016), is, in fact, the first mariachi opera ever written. The story, very much of both the here and now and the there and then, is of one family’s journey across borders to find one another and to make a home together.
The OSB production is directed by Octavio Cardenas (“Madama Butterfly,” 2019), and conducted by David Hanlon, who conducted the 2010 Houston premiere. The music is performed by the Grammy-winning Mariachi Los Camperos, who performed the opera at its New York City premiere in 2017 and the Houston revival in 2018.
The principal roles will be sung by tenor Daniel Montenegro, baritone Efraín Solís, Kelly Guerra & Sergio Gonzalez, Bernardo Bermudez, Jessica Gonzalez-Rodriguez, and Raphaella Medina (making her OSB debut). The set is designed by Adam Crinson and the lighting by Brandon Baruch).
The performance will have songs and spoken dialogue in Spanish and English, with English supertitles projected above the stage.
“We are thrilled to be returning to the Granada with a work that is approachable in so many ways,” said OSB artistic and general director, Kostis Protopapas. “For us this is the time to open up our doors wide and make theater a place of healing for everyone in our community.
“We are all thirsty for live music and a sense of community right now, and ‘Cruzar’ is the ideal vehicle for this emotional reopening, with its singable tunes, moving story, and message of resilience and regeneration.”
To that end, the company has announced that a limited number of tickets for this season’s productions will be available to all patrons on a name-your-own-price basis. The name of this initiative, made possible by a grant by the Walter and Holly Thomson Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Co-Trustee, is You Decide!
“This means that any patron who finds our published prices too high is invited to make their own decision on how much to pay,” said Protopapas. “Producing opera with professional singers, orchestra and stagehands is very expensive, and tickets typically cover less than 50% of the cost.
“Still, we want our performances to be accessible to everyone, and trust patrons to choose their own price knowing that every dollar goes toward supporting vibrant, live, Santa Barbara-made music theater.”
Only 50% of the Granada Theater’s capacity of 1,500 seats will be sold. Detailed health protocols can be found on the Granada website https://ticketing.granadasb.org/.
Reserved tickets can be purchased online at www.granadasb.org, and are currently priced at $189, $149, and $89. You Decide! (pay-what-you-can) tickets are available by phone only, through the Granada Box Office, 805-899-2222.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.