5 Things To Know About Cruzar la Cara de la Luna

Cruzar la Cara de la Luna begins with a family experiencing the last days of their loved one, Laurentino’s life. As they bear witness to his declining health, son Mark and granddaughter Diana listen to his stories from boyhood to marriage; homesickness and joy. Family, sacrifice, and reconciliation are central themes in this production – and its one you won’t want to miss.  

Here are five more things you should know before you go.  

1. Cruzar la Cara de la Luna premiered in 2010 at Houston Grand Opera with music and lyrics by José “Pepe” Martínez and book and additional lyrics by Leonard Foglia. Originally performed with Mariachi Vargas, the production gained immediate praise and soon after, companies across the United States and Europe began to present the gripping story for new audiences.  For its 2023 production, Minnesota Opera increased the scale of the production and the score, commissioning conductor David Hanlon to produce a full orchestration for the piece. This meant building upon the artistry and style of José “Pepe” Martínez’s original score, played by thirteen mariachi musicians of Mariachi Vargas, and creating one for 53 musicians of the MN Opera Orchestra and a MN Opera Chorus of 14. Hanlon has amplified Martínez’s original score in innovative ways while remaining true to its authentic storytelling roots. Over the past month, the MN Opera Orchestra has been working to bring the new elements of this work together. 

2. Laurentino, played by Octavio Moreno, goes to the United States for work as a part of the Bracero program– a program created in 1942 to address a national agriculture workforce shortage. Concluding in 1964, this program would bring over 4 million Mexican workers to the U.S. Learn more about the Bracero program.

3. Set and Costume Designer Arnulfo Maldonado was inspired by the work of Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta, who designed the San Antonio Public Library. Like the set for Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, Legorreta worked with vibrant color and distinct shapes and lines in his architecture. Maldonado brings vivid color to the stage, which he notes reflects the spirit of the Velásquez family in the production. Balancing that spirit with the reality of the conditions many braceros (arms or farm hands) experienced, the costume design was influenced by photography from the dormitories and fields where these men worked. 

4. Principal singers Octavio Moreno, Cecilia Duarte, and Vanessa Alonzo were all part of the original production at the Houston Grand Opera in 2010. They reprise their roles for the MN Opera’s new production, bringing emotional resonance and vocal prowess as they infuse the mariachi sound with operatic scale.  

5. To stage the new, full-scale production, MN Opera engaged former Resident Artist David Radames Toro as the opera’s director. Radames Toro notes that this story homes in on that of the Mexican American experience through the lens of one family’s story. In this case, that story is one that contains multitudes– that of connection to home, commitment to family, and sacrifice alongside joy in the face of tragedy. This is not simply a story about migration or immigration, rather he wanted to bring the complexity of the Latino experience to the stage.