Seductive Nahuatl Opera Premieres in Mexico City The Associated Press
go to original September 7, 2014

Ensayo técnico - Arcelia, Guerrero (Opera náhuatl Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli)

MEXICO CITY — Three young women surround a muscular, shirtless man, laughing, hugging and caressing his neck as he rocks his head back in pleasure.

A dozen musicians pound out a furious rhythm with pre-Columbian traditional wooden drums, rattles and flutes. Above the stage, a screen translates their flirtatious song into Spanish from the original Nahuatl language.

“Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli,” which premiered last week in the Mexican capital, is a fusion of artistic traditions from ancient Mexico. While it’s not the first opera to be composed in an indigenous tongue, it is the first contemporary one created for an orchestra of pre-Hispanic instruments.

The fruit of 10 years of labor by Mexican musicologist Gabriel Pareyon, the work is based on “Xochicuicatl,” a song of the Mexica people with erotic overtones that was compiled by a Spanish priest in the 16th century with the help of indigenous scribes.

“‘Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli’ is a musical, poetic, dance, instrumental and philosophical show that reflects the symbolic richness of pre-Columbian Mexico, neither an archaeological nor a historic reconstruction but rather a completely new work that originates from an ancient text,” Pareyon told The Associated Press.

Read the rest at Epoch Times

Photo: Marco Ugarte/Associated Press

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