In commemoration of the 70th birth anniversary of mexican composer Daniel Catán, the opera Salsipuedes, will be presented at Ópera de Bellas Artes. This is the third title of the 2019 season. There will be four performances, in the Main Hall of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, on the 26th, 28th, 30th of May and 2nd of June.

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The Ministry of Culture, through the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, presents Salsipuedes, work in three acts by the Mexican composer Daniel Catán, with a libretto in Spanish by the Cuban writer Eliseo Alberto, in collaboration with the Mexican Francisco Hinojosa and Catán.

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Salsipuedes or love, war and some anchovies is the full name of the third title of the 2019 season, which the Ópera de Bellas Artes presents, in commemoration of the 70th birth anniversary of Mexican composer Daniel Catán, who also wrote the operas Encuentro en el ocaso; the daughter of Rapaccini; Florence in the Amazon and Il Postino; the latter presented in the 2011 season, with a production of the Los Angeles Opera.

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It is an acid comedy, located in the 1940s, during the Second World War. In the words of Eliseo Alberto, “an opera, sung in Spanish, which tells a story of Nazis, rumberos, harlots, brides and shipwrecks …”.

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The stage direction is in charge of Luis Martín Solís, Jesús Hernández will be the creator of the stage design and the lighting will be designed by Rafael Mendoza. Costumes and makeup will be by Sara Salomón and Cinthia Muñoz, respectively.

“Salsipuedes has a very formal, operatic part, but it also resorts to a use of theatricality in the part that talks about politics. It has some Brechtian theater, “says the stage director, Luis Martín Solís. As for music, he adds that he mixes “traditional opera with Afro-Antillean, Afro-Latin rhythms, which, likewise, run in parallel. This is one of the great successes of the composition.

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“The political situation is very open. Like Alfred Jarry, who did not get in trouble when talking about his fantasy Poland, Salsipuedes is not located in a specific country or island: it is a sum of all the political mistakes that our region has had and can be read in any place and time. I think that makes it more interesting. The more open you are, the wider is the way you land when you are looking for something more specific. “

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The Choir and the Orchestra of the Teatro de Bellas Artes participe; the first, led by teachers Luis Manuel Sánchez Rivas and Alfredo Domínguez. All of them under the baton of maestro Ricardo Jaramillo.

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The cast of this staging is composed of young Mexican singers and others with more experience on stage. Ángel Macías, Liliana Aguilasocho, Josué Cerón and Mariana Sofía García, will play the two main characters. They will be accompanied by Luis Alberto Sánchez, as the dictator of Salsipuedes; Alejandro Navarrete, Rodrigo Petate, Armando Gama, Alan Pingarrón, Angélica Alejandre and Arisbé De la Barrera will play Sergeant Guzmán, Lieutenant, Captain Magallanes, El Chino, La China and Orquídea, respectively, while Enrique Ángeles will play the Colonel and Madame Colette.

A different opera, full of salsa, Caribbean rhythms and cadenced melodies, for which Catán had a unique orchestration, which does not include string instruments, except cellos and double basses. On the other hand, the percussion section has a preponderant presence, both in the orchestral corpus and on the stage, as well as the wood and metal sections.

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The anecdote is located in the 1940s, on the Caribbean island of Salsipuedes. Ulises and Chucho have recently married Sisters Lucero and Magali, when they are called to sing the national anthem at an unexpected ceremony that will take place on the pier. General Garcia, ruler of the island, has declared war on the Nazis. Accidentally, the husbands are taken in “The Invincible” to fight the enemy, while their embarrassed wives lament for the terrible mistake. Immediately they launch to the search of their men, crossing the island from one extreme to another, until they find them. The meeting of the couples takes place in the middle of a party on board the ship, where a plot is discovered that will change the destiny of all those present.