Drug War in Mexico is Setting for Long Beach Opera's 'Camelia la Tejana' John Farrell - Press-Telegram
go to original March 23, 2013

These excerpts are taken from the World Premiere of Gabriela Ortiz's video-opera documentary which took place at the Festival de México and Compañía Nacional de Opera on March 11, 2010 at Teatro Julio Castillo in Mexico City. Long Beach Opera will be giving the US Premiere on March 24 & 30, 2013 at the Terrace Theatre, Long Beach. (longbeachopera)

Opera is often about characters from several centuries back, or mythological gods from - well, God knows where. Not "Camelia la Tejana - Only the Truth," which is about as close to a headline as an opera can be: It's set in Tijuana and Los Angeles and its story reads like the scenario for a TV detective show.

The opera is being given its U.S. premiere this weekend and next by Long Beach Opera at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center's Terrace Theater, and it's sure to provoke even more comments than last year's "Maria de Buenos Aires" did. That's because the work isn't set in the recent past, as "Maria" was, but in the present. It's a story set in Mexico's bloody drug wars that have killed more than 60,000 people and involves a beautiful and independent woman who lives in that violent world.

"Camelia la Tejana" has music written by Mexico's foremost female composer, Gabriela Ortiz, music that combines the popular norteno music of Mexico with Mexican ballads and classical modernism. Her work has been described by The New York Times as "gentle-voiced, gracefully flowing" and the music as "fiery, rhythmically pointed and occasionally pugilistic."

Read the rest at Press-Telegram

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