Heart-tugging story, wonderful music define first-ever mariachi opera

PHOENIX — Arizona Opera last Friday night opened its 2014-15 season with the world’s first mariachi opera featuring arguably the world’s finest mariachi, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán.

The audience at Phoenix Symphony Hall was heavily Hispanic — a group that is sorely underserved by the Eurocentric artform. In “Cruzar la Cara de la Luna” (To Cross the Face of the Moon) they found a story that is entirely relatable — a Mexican immigrant in his final days reflecting on the life he left behind in Mexico, including a son he hasn’t seen since an ill-fated and tragic attempt to illegally immigrate to Arizona. And they found a musical style that resonates with the Mexican culture — the distinctive twang of mariachi.

But this also is an Arizona story, one with which even those of us who have no experience with the Mexican immigration story can relate.

Here are four reasons why you should not miss this production, which will be at Tucson Music Hall Saturday and Sunday:

The music

If you’ve lived in Arizona your whole life or only a fraction of it, you are familiar with mariachi. Mariachi Vargas is the seminal ensemble and to say it was fabulous in Phoenix last Friday is to understate its collective talent. It produced a wonderfully rich soundscape with soaring violins tempered by the brass exclamation of the horns and the high pitch of the vihuela, given a kick in the heart with the thick pulse of the guitarron and Julio Martinez’s crisp and fluid harp.

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The story

A Mexican immigrant has a deathbed wish — to be reunited with the son he left behind in Mexico after the boy was spirited away by his grandmother when his mother dies while attempting to cross the desert into Arizona. The story is told in flashbacks as Laurentino (Hermosillo native Octavio Moreno, who possessed both a wonderful burnished baritone and passionate acting chops) recalls his life in Mexico with Renata, the love of his life (sung with amazing warmth and sweetness by Mexico-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duerte) and his life in Arizona with his American-born son and granddaughter. The granddaughter (the standout Ohio soprano Brittany Wheeler) tries to convince her father (Texas baritone Brian Shircliffe) to call her uncle Rafael (the amazing Colombian tenor David Guzman) in Mexico and tell him that Laurentino is dying. She ends up making the call herself and convinces the uncle to come see her grandfather before he dies.

The voices

Wow, can this cast sing, especially Guzman, who was simply out-of-this-world terrific. Throughout the night he showed off a powerfully beautiful voice filled with the kind of warmth and sincerity that sneaks into your subconscious and pops up hours later with such clarity that you relive it over and over.

Friendly introduction

For the opera uninitiated, “Cruzar la Cara” is more music theater than opera — the action is equally split between singing and spoken word in both English and Spanish. There are no big vocal exclamations and high Cs left hanging somewhere in the rafters waiting for the clichéd wine glass to shatter. This one also clocks in at 90 minutes, about the same time it takes to see a movie.