DeCachetitoRaspado
Comic-Hemofiction Opera in two Acts
Music by Juan Trigos
Libretto by Juan Trigos Synister
Following successful performances in Europe and Mexico, the Comic-Hemofiction operaDeCachetitoRaspado (CheekToStubbledCheek) will receive its United States premiere on October 28 and 29, 2015, at Georgia State University’s Rialto Center for the Arts. This performance, co-produced by PromoMusica International of Houston, Texas, and Bent Frequency, a contemporary chamber music ensemble based in Atlanta, Georgia, will feature an international cast which includes performers from Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the United States, and Venezuela.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This performance of DeCachetitoRaspado is a co-production of PromoMusica International of Houston, Texas, and Bent Frequency, a contemporary chamber music ensemble based in Atlanta, Georgia. The cast includes: composer and conductor Juan Trigos; stage director Luis Martín Solís; scenographer Luciano Trigos; mezzo-soprano Amy Sheffer; baritone César Torruella; soprano Daniela D’Ingiullo; tenor Esteban Cordero; co-choreographers, actresses and dancers Daniela Arroio and Anna Mariscal; the Zeitgeist Chorus directed by Deanna Joseph; and Bent Frequency. In the weeks preceding the opera’s United States premiere, rehearsals will take place in Houston, Texas, for the majority of the cast, who will then fly to Atlanta, Georgia, to join the Zeitgeist Chorus and Bent Frequency. This schedule will allow us to involve the local communities of both cities by arranging interviews with, and lectures by, the artists.
WHY THIS PROJECT?Our goals in pursuing this project are:
WHY WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
Thirty artists, thrilled to share with you their passion for music and the arts, are involved in this production, some of them talented young artists whose careers are being launched by this endeavor. So far, we have raised $65,000 to cover airfare, lodging and meals, publicity, rental fees, make costumes and artists’s compensation. Your support will enable us to design and build the stage at an estimated cost of $5,000.
ABOUT THE OPERA DeCachetitoRaspado is a Comic-Hemofiction opera created by two extraordinary Mexican artists: Juan Trigos, composer and conductor; and Juan Trigos Synister [Senior], novelist, playwright and librettist. Through their works, both artists engage with culturally relevant and significant social themes, such as absence, alcohol and drug abuse, and women’s roles in the household and in society, opening a door to their conscience, urging us to reflect and to peek into the depths of our own.
ABOUT OUR PRODUCERS
PromoMusica International is a recognized producer and publisher of music and artists manager. For more information on PromoMusica International, visit: http://www.promusint.com Bent Frequency, based in Atlanta, Georgia, and hailed as “one of the brightest New Music ensembles on the scene today” by Gramophone magazine. Bent Frequency’s artistic vision is a result of the close collaboration among its Artistic Directors, Jan Berry Baker, Stuart Gerber, and Tania Maxwell Clements. For more information on Bent Frequency, visit: http://www.bentfrequency.com
This project is made possible thanks to the support of
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THANK YOU FOR YOU SUPPORT!!!
MORE ABOUT DECACHETITORASPADO
AND THIS PRODUCTION….Interview by Tom Moore on OPERA TODAY
WHAT IS HORROR-HEMOFICTION?
Horror-Hemoficción (Horror-Hemofiction) is a literary movement of search invented by Juan Trigos Synister, father of the composer. It reflects the characters in a multitude of mirrors in which they contemplate, frightened, the thousand faces of their personal infantilism. The protagonists, human children, play at being serious adults, but are murderers or full of lies. In every novel, play, or short story, infantile cruelty invades. Perhaps, someday, spiritual awakening will lead to maturity, which would mean plenary responsibility from which all characters created by Juan Trigos Synister—precisely because they are human, that is to say, children—run away. Horror-Hemoficción, always in jest, profound and amusing literature, opens doors to the personal conscience of the author and, by expansive reflection, is road towards the intimate knowledge of the reader who is capable of peeking into his or her own depths.
LIBRETTO BY JUAN TRIGOS SYNISTER
SYNOPSIS
The central theme in the opera DeCachetitoRaspado (CheekToStubbledCheek) is the absence that the characters, Juansonrisa and Primancianita, fill up by projecting their imaginings. She is sterile, so she gives birth to two siamese sons who accompany them in all their theatrical improvisations. The story begins with the introduction of these beings of invention speaking about a baptism —imaginary as well—to which the president who has governed Mexico at diverse stages of the country’s life keeping the same criminal tendencies, will attend. Same imposing personality in collusion with the Church. There will be baptism with piñata-fractured heads. Instead of pulque, beer will run; instead of friends, compadres. Padrino (Godfather) will take requests. They have also invited the dead, Catalina and Antonia, fictitious portraits of Primancianita, to dance during the celebration. These illusory deceased are Juansonrisa’s lovers and also his victims, for he strangles them daily. Primancianita is hooked with Padrino-Presidente (Godfather-President) and wants to have sex with him. But the man of state is politically and carnally chaste. Tall. Güero (blond). Puts hands behind his back. Reads The Holy Bible. Goes to church after taking off his cassock. After washing his hands well. AfterPraying. AfterThinking of his madrecita santa (saintly mother). There is confusion between the real wedding of the protagonists and the imaginary wedding with Señor Presidente (Mister President) and with the baptism party to which a nonexistent priest attends. Honeymoon in Cuernavaca. Primancianita affirms she was a virgin before marriage, and shows her red panties as proof. There is comic singing to virginity, as to the garter that will attract the love of our Señor Presidente. There is singing to the nation and the religious inquisitorial party, rambunctious institutional party, party that has ruled the country for many decades. The opera concludes when Padrino-Presidente (Godfather-President) says that no one goes to the theater. What remains—beyond their fictional infidelities, beyond social conventions, beyond the games in which they pretend wanting to die and having wishes of killing one another—is the taste of the true love these two alcoholics feel for each other.