Cruzar la Cara de la Luna
October 3, 2024 | 7:00 p.m.
october 5, 2024 | 7:30 p.m.
H-E-B PERFORMANCE HALL
TOBIN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
free pre-show lectures:
One hour prior to each performance, audience members are encouraged to attend a free lecture that is open to all ticket holders. These lectures, held in the Tobin Center’s Feik Rotunda, are designed to be educational for opera-goers of all ages and are offered to help the audience gain a better understanding of the production they are about to experience.
Overview
Music by José "Pepe" Martínez
Lyrics by Leonard Foglia and José "Pepe" Martínez
Libretto by Leonard Foglia
Running time: 1 hour and 30 minutes with no intermission
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna has become a smash sensation around the globe, weaving together the powerful story of a Mexican-American family divided by frontiers yet united by heritage. Featuring the nationally acclaimed Mariachi Campanas de America, this opera promises an unforgettable experience where music and story converge in a celebration of familial bonds and enduring traditions.
Sung and spoken in Spanish and English with translations projected above the stage.
This production is presented in collaboration with Mariachi Campanas de America.
LIBRETTIST AND DIRECTOR’S NOTES
BY LEONARD FOGLIA
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna/To Cross the Face of the Moon
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 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 Velásquez family must travel both physically and spiritually between Michoacán and Texas and look deep into their hearts before they learn where they truly belong.
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¿En dónde se encuentra el hogar de uno? ¿Es donde nacimos? ¿O donde hemos vivido la mayor parte de nuestras vidas? ¿Es con la familia que dejamos atrás, o con las nuevas familias que formamos?
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna es la crónica de tres generaciones de una familia dividida por dos países diferentes y sus culturas.
Mientras un mexicano-americano se enfrenta al inminente deceso de su padre, se ve forzado a enfrentar estas preguntas acerca de su propia existencia y el lugar que ocupa en el mundo—viviendo entre dos culturas—tanto la de su padre inmigrante, como la de su hija estadounidense. Al revelarse secretos que habían sido guardados durante mucho tiempo, se encuentra a sí mismo re-evaluando lo que significa para él el concepto de familia.
Así como las mariposas Monarca migran anualmente a la tierra de sus padres, también los miembros de la familia Velásquez deben viajar física y espiritualmente entre Michoacán y Texas; de igual manera llevan a cabo una profunda introspección en su corazón para saber el lugar al que realmente pertenecen.
By/Por Leonard Foglia – Librettist / Director