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COURIER LIFE, DEC.24-7 28, 2018–JAN. 3, 2019 43
By Kevin Duggan No wall could have stopped him.
A bi-lingual opera will tell the
story of an enigmatic Mexican
revolutionary who reportedly stole from
the rich and gave to the poor. “Pancho
Villa From a Safe Distance,” opening
at Bric on Jan. 5, will feature a non-linear
collage of scenes from the turbulent
life of Villa, who led rebellions against
several Mexican dictators and narrowly
escaped death numerous times before his
mysterious assassination in 1923 — all of
which made him a larger-than-life figure
on both sides of the Mexican-American
border, according to the show’s composer.
“Even before he was assassinated, his
legend was larger than he was. You go
through west Texas or northern Mexico
and everyone has a story of how someone
in their family was either on Pancho’s side
or against,” said Graham Reynolds, who
created the show with director Shawn
Sides.
The pair came up with the idea in
2013, when they were staying at the Hotel
Paso Del Norte in El Paso. The rebel
stayed at the hotel at one point, and in
1911, voyeuristic tourists climbed to the
roof of the building to watch him fight
the Battle of Juárez — on the other side
of the Mexican border — through their
opera glasses from a safe and comfortable
distance.
Those twin stories inspired the opera’s
plot and its title, which reflects the leery
relationship between both countries,
according to Reynolds.
“The whole thing is analogous to
today with Americans looking from the
border across to Mexico, and also me as a
white American composer writing about
Pancho,” he said.
Reynolds worked with Mexican librettists
Luisa Pardo and Gabino Rodríguez
to write the script, which is mostly in
Spanish with English subtitles. The
Mexico City–based writers will also perform
the score, backed by a six-piece
band playing a mix of Mexican, Texan,
classical, and psychedelic-rock music.
The show features both true stories
and modern legends that have sprung up
about Villa, touching both on his protection
of the poor, and his ruthless violence
against anyone who stood in his way. The
opera shows that dichotomy in a scene
where Pancho recruits a man for his army,
said Reynolds.
“There’s a scene where Pancho went
to someone’s house to get a meal and tries
to recruit the father who says he has to
stay home and take care of his family. So
Pancho shoots the family and tells him he
is now free to join the army,” Reynolds
recounted. Whether fact or fiction, the
stories reflect the myths that surround
Villa’s life — and his mysterious death,
when he was assassinated by a barrage of
gun shots while driving home.
“There is a long list of people who
would have wanted him dead and it is
still a subject of debate who assassinated
him,” Reynolds said.
“Pancho Villa From a Safe Distance”
at Bric House 647 Fulton St. at Rockwell
Place in Fort Greene, (718) 855–7882,
www.bricartsmedia.org. Jan. 5–8 at 7:30
pm; Jan. 6 at 2 pm. $30–$75.
Border legend: Mexico City–based librettists
Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol will perform
several vignettes taken from the
turbulent life story of the larger-than-life
revolutionary Pancho Villa. Alex Marks
Rebel rebelde
Bi-lingual opera tells the story of Mexican revolutionary
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