Quetzal Guerrero and Nathalie Pena-Comas (Photo by Grettel Cortes Photography)
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
The Latino Theater Company at LATC
Through June 2
RECOMMENDED
There’s not much information to be found on Juventino Rosas on Wikipedia or even on the Internet, unless, of course, you do some digging. If you do, you will learn that he was born in 1868, that he was a Mexican composer and musician of indigenous (Otomi) stock, and that the music he composed was so technically accomplished that it astounded critics and led people to assume that his greatest work was written by the Austrian composer, Johann Strauss.
Hence the title Ghost Waltz, chosen by playwright Oliver Mayer’s for his luminous and ribboned-with-magic new play, developed with the Latino Theatre Company’s Circle of Imaginistas playwriting group and directed with an accomplished hand by Alberto Barbosa. The title refers to “Sobre las Olas” — in English “Over the Waves” — Rosas’s mesmerizing composition whose melody is familiar to many of us even as its creator and his art are recalled as only a silhouette in the annals of musical art.
The story evolves in a kind of netherworld, in keeping with the notion, reiterated throughout the play, that life and death are ever interwoven. With much of the stage draped in white, it begins in Mexico City, where an adolescent Juventino (Quetzal Guerrero) and his father, Don Jesus (Eduardo Robledo), are making music in the streets for money. While his dad plays the guitar, Juventino dazzles on the violin. A tune of his own composition captures the ear of a passing music professor (Cástulo Guerra), who offers him the opportunity to study in Mexico City’s premier music academy. Juventino accepts without hesitation, but his mistrustful father warns him of the bigotry and disrespect that lie ahead for him as a person of indigenous origin.
And so they do.
Juventino’s foray into the world of professional musicians leads to his encounter with the Mexican Nightingale (Nathalie Pena-Comas) a Mexican opera singer internationally extolled for her soaring silken vocals. He is entranced — but the Nightingale, taking her cue from society’s conventions, will have nothing to do with this inconsequential young “brown” musician. Despite her rejection, Juventino persists in adoring her, convinced in his heart that they are bound together by music. “Sobre las Olas” is dedicated in her honor.
Juventino’s other significant encounter (it’s unclear if this is inspired by fact or entirely fictional) is with Scott Joplin (Ric’key Pageot), equally disrespected and dismissed because of the color of his skin (It took the popularity of The Sting (1973) to finally lend Joplin’s work widespread public recognition.) The two men bond, until a triangle develops around Joplin’s coquettish lady friend, Bethena (a nuanced Ariel Brown), made restless by her man’s focus on his music when she is primed to play.
From the beginning, it’s clear that Mayer intends Ghost Waltz as a journey of the spirit, with music as its carriage. The play is propelled by the alternately playful and poignant sounds of Juventino’s violin (Guerrero is a classically trained violinist). And its most pinnacle interludes are achieved when Pena-Comas, superbly cast as the Nightingale, favors us with her silvery inspirational renditions of “Sobre las Olas” and other classical works.
Within this framework, the story embodies the notion of the permeability of the border between this world and one beyond, where the voices of the dead are as vital as those of the living. And it’s repeatedly impressed upon us that the world Juventino eludes through the magic of music is a harsh and racist one.
Both Guerrero and Pageot as Joplin appear to have been cast with their strengths as musicians in mind. The power of the storytelling ignites in the performances of Robledo as an angry and impassioned Don Jesus, Monte Escalante as a magical teller of fortunes who can straddle life and death, Brown as the sly, sensual Bethena and Guerra as the German-Jewish professor who sponsors Juventino, having himself survived the tribulations of anti-Semitic intolerance.
Scenic design, costumes, and projections are by Emily Anne Macdonald and Cameron Jaye Mock (co-projection design by Vanessa D. Fernandez, co-costume design by Claire Fraser), while the musical direction of this transporting musical play is by Alberto López. A central edifice doubles as Juventino’s aspirational staircase to his lady love and Joplin’s studio. An enigmatic red emblem — a flower that stands for Rosas? — suspends from the ceiling. I found the costumes subtle and enhancing: the sequined heart-shaped red brooch pinned to Juventino chest, the flaring pantaloons worn by the liberated Bethuna, the elegant white dresses that clothe Pena-Comas’s unapproachable (till she isn’t) songstress. Sound design by Nathan Davis and lighting by Johnny Garofalo intermingle with other elements to create a rich runic dreamscape for this tale of an artist almost effaced by history.
Latino Theater Company at LATC, 514 S. Spring St., downtown. Opens Sat., May 4; Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 4 pm; thru June 1. https://latinotheatreco.org Running time: One hour and 40 minutes with an intermission.
