Look Tucson, we haven’t had this talk. It’s been on my mind lately, but with this month’s staging of what is sure to be an amazing performance of a mariachi opera from the Arizona Opera company, it’s time to stage an intervention. Do not wait, like you usually do to buy tickets. That rude behavior that has everyone trained to be on the edge of their seats until the day before a show opens when you finally make up your mind what you’re going to do that night. Stop. Doing. That.
No. Please. You can do this. I believe in you. It starts with the production of “Cruzar la Cara de la Luna.” The show opens in Phoenix and there are only two performances scheduled for Tucson: Saturday, Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m. and
Sunday, Oct. 19, 2 p.m.
The opera, which features Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, was written by José “Pepe” Martínez and Leonard Foglia and commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera.
From Arizona Opera:
Where is home?
Is it where we are born?
Or where we live most of our lives?
Is it with the family we leave behind or with the new ones we create?To Cross the Face of the Moon / Cruzar la Cara de la Luna follows three generations of a single family, divided by countries and cultures. As a Mexican/American man deals with the approaching death of his father, he is forced to face these questions about his own place in the world — straddling two cultures — as well as that of his immigrant father and his American daughter. As long-buried secrets are revealed, he finds himself dramatically re-evaluating his own understanding of what makes a family. Like the Monarch butterflies that migrate every year to the birthplace of his father, the members of the Velasquez family must travel both physically and spiritually between Michoacán and Texas and look deep into their hearts before they learn where they truly belong. —Leonard Foglia
Tickets and more info, go to www.azopera.org.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2014.
OMG, is this a first? An item on the AZO in Tucson Weekly. Is this an aspect of the editor discovering non-pop music? What next the TSO?
The Opera Guild of Southern Arizona offers FREE opera previews before each AZ Opera. For the Mariachi opera they are 1. Say Hello to Opera, Wed, Oct. 8, 3pm at the Oro Valley Public Library, 1305 W. Naranja Ave, Oro Valley, phone 520-594-5580 and 2. Brown Bag Opera, Friday, Oct. 10, 12 noon, Grace St. Paul Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St., Tucson, phone 520-327-6857…bring your own lunch. . .cookies, coffee & tea provided. Call Cindy Hagerman, Treas, OGSA 520.661.3483 for questions and the dates of the upcoming previews for the 2014-2015 opera season.
AZO is not “staging” anything. They are importing this show and acting like producers. Yes, ticket sales are weak because this market is unlike any other. This show did better in San Diego and San Antonio. Maybe we need to rename our cities San Tucson and San Phoenix.