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Thanks to financial help from new Sinaloa Gov. Juan S. Millan, arts lovers
and fall visitors to Mazatlán will be enjoying the likes of the opera "La
Traviata" with a star from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the full
ballet "Swan Lake" by a visiting professional company, and much more. All
of it in the restored, elegant, vintage-1870s Angela Peralta Theater. If
there is any one outstanding feature of this year's Fall Festival of the
Arts -- more recently called simply the Mazatlán Cultural Festival -- it
is the return of the state of Sinaloa to the cultural fold since Millan
became governor last January. During his predecessor's six-year term, the
arts took a back seat to other projects which the state government of that
era considered more important. The Sinaloa Festival, bringing performances
and other arts events to the smallest towns and cities around the state,
was actually founded by then-Gov. Francisco Labastida Ochoa, now a serious
contender for president of México. (The next national elections will be
held in July of the year 2000.) It was in the early 1990s, just before the
state arts budget got canceled, that Mazatlán's jewel box of a Victorian
opera house, the Angela Peralta Theater, was resurrected from ruins after
a restoration project that took several years. Local people wanted the fall
arts festival to continue, with the theater as its focal point. So without
the state's help, the municipal government set about bridging the gap by
creating the Mazatlán Cultural Festival. Not only has the festival become
important to the residents of the city, it is an enormous point of interest
to visitors as well. Mazatlán is the only beach resort in México with a
full-fledged opera house. The Mazatlán Festival has come to be popular with
tourists, for it takes place from about mid- |
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October to mid-December, at just about the time people are escaping the
onset of cold weather in the northern latitudes. Since the arts know no
language barrier, Mazatlán's visitors can attend performances at the theater
without having to know any Spanish. Coming up just ahead this year, the
Mazatlán Cultural Festival will kick off its first two weeks by adoption
into the Sinaloa Arts Festival, with an infusion of international talent
well outside of the normal range of its budget. Highlight of the statewide
event that are coming to Mazatlán include " La Traviata," on Thursday, Oct.
21, with soprano Sharon Spinetti of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City
and several other imported singers in leading roles, as well as the Angela
Peralta Chorale and a full orchestra under the baton of Enrique Patron de
Rueda; a performance by a 40-piece orchestra from Mantua, Italy, on Oct.
16; and the ballet "Swan Lake" performed by the Ballet Festival Company
of Northern México. Because the much-heralded "Que Tango" troupe from Los
Angeles canceled its three Sinaloa performances at the last minute, several
other attractions had to be shuffled around. But although it won't be part
of the statewide festival, there's still a chance that the Mazatlán Festival
will be able to book an Argentine tango company that's currently playing
in Mexico City. Ricardo Urquijo, municipal arts coordinator, said he was
working with the Argentine Embassy to try to schedule that group for a local
performance in November. Since certain performances, especially those scheduled
for the Mazatlán Festival beginning Nov. 1, were still tentative, be sure
to check the latest details in the November edition of the Pacific Pearl.
Or you can call the theater at 82-44-47. |
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Theater & Opera...
Dance &
Music...
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