For L.A.-based musician, composer and artist San Cha, the Spanish language is a inventive gold mine. “Considered one of my favourite Spanish phrases is ‘embriagarme,’ which I believe the direct translation is ‘make me drunk’ or ‘intoxicate me,’” she says. “I love that phrase. I believe there’s a music by Thalía that has that phrase, it’s referred to as ‘Piel Morena,’ and each time she mentioned that, I’m like — ‘That’s it!’”
San Cha is talking of her newest work, “Inebria me,” forward of its Los Angeles premiere Thursday at REDCAT, contained in the Walt Disney Live performance Corridor advanced. “Inebria me” is a 90-minute experimental opera that expands on her critically acclaimed 2019 ranchera fusion album, “La Luz de la Esperanza.” San Cha stars as Dolores, a humble bride to the a lot wealthier Salvador, whose jealousy turns lethal; enter Esperanza, a genderless spirit of empowerment, who helps mild Dolores’ path to freedom.
Having gone from singing rancheras within the eating places of Mexico Metropolis to experimenting in underground drag scenes within the Bay Space, San Cha has developed a knack for synthesizing disparate influences that end in visually arresting and thought-provoking work. Born Lizette Gutierrez in San Jose to Mexican immigrant dad and mom, San Cha grew up offsetting her intense Bible research by binging on telenovelas after faculty. It reveals in “Inebria me,” the place she employs the traditional narrative construction of the telenovela, however with a queer twist. “I wished to carry [onto] the queerness of [the story] and the spiritual elements of it,” she says.
The opera is the most recent of San Cha’s collaborative efforts. She’s beforehand linked up with an array of artists — together with La Doña, Rafa Esparza, Yesika Salgado and even nation singer Kacey Musgraves, who featured San Cha in a pivotal second from her 2021 visible album, “Star-Crossed.” Darian Donovan Thomas additionally stars in “Inebria me,” alongside Stefa Marin Alarcon, Lu Coy, Kyle Kidd, Carolina Oliveros and Phong Tran.
In our newest interview, she discusses growing her music for the stage and what it took to construct the boldness to advocate for her unique imaginative and prescient on her personal.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
San Cha performs with Darian Donovan Thomas on Sept. 5 on the Winningstad Theatre in Portland, Ore.
(Jingzi Zhao)
When did the concept to adapt “La Luz de la Esperanza” come to you?
It truly got here to me in 2023 or 2024 once I partnered with the Nationwide Efficiency Community for this grant. I began speaking with the Portland Institute for Up to date Artwork, which was already on board, and the Efficiency Area New York. Like, what would I do to adapt this work?
Did you may have expertise in conventional theater rising up?
No, I didn’t. And I additionally didn’t watch too many motion pictures. I missed out on a variety of these very American experiences. Individuals can be like, “Have you learnt this film?’ And “It’s like a traditional,” and it’s like “No.” I used to be actually sheltered, you recognize, “I’m over right here in Bible research” sort of s—.
Has anybody in your loved ones seen this piece? If that’s the case, what was their suggestions?
My dad and mom noticed a trial model of this piece in San Jose, my hometown. They noticed the PG-13 model, which is what I’d wish to say, and my mother was confused; I don’t even understand how my dad felt. My mother’s one remark was, “You didn’t sing rancheras. Everybody needs you to sing rancheras.” And I used to be like, “Oh, my God.” So in addition they got here to the closing evening with an enormous group, and I sang the rancheras for them on the finish.
How would you relate “Inebria me” to what’s thought of a “conventional” opera?
I’d say it has a really clear narrative … the whole lot is sung, aside from the elements [where] the Man [is] speaking or talking.
I sing rancheras [and] that sort of blends into operas. I didn’t develop up being an opera singer, or eager to be an opera singer, however in some way it developed in that path. On this, we get to be all of the issues: slightly hardcore, slightly pop, slightly combine with opera.
The place did the concept to usher in telenovelas come from?
I wished to make a telenovela set to music. And since I’d by no means seen a queer telenovela … I simply was like, I need to make the telenovela and set it to disco music … one thing digital, glamorous. It [speaks to] the phantasm of glamour, beneath the whole lot is ugly and twisted.
What was your first reminiscence of watching a telenovela?
There are such a lot of. I’d watch the child telenovelas. However there’s one specifically … it’s one the place Lucero, an enormous pop star in Mexico, performs three variations of herself, so she’s a triplet. And there’s one [version] that’s so evil. I nonetheless keep in mind, [the characters] would get very BDSM … like locking folks up! As a child, I used to be feeling like … “Why am I watching this? I’m a toddler!”
“I didn’t develop up eager to be an opera singer, however in some way it developed in that path,” says San Cha of “Inebria me.”
(Jingzi Zhao)
You’ve talked about how drag queens had been instrumental, particularly early in your profession. Queer and drag tradition have come into mainstream pop and youth tradition on the one hand, however stay demonized on the opposite. How do you reconcile these two extremes in your work?
I suppose visibility doesn’t at all times imply security or acceptance. I keep in mind being in San Francisco and seeing drag that wasn’t as polished and extra on the perimeter facet of it.
I used to be … sort of hating it once I obtained to L.A. and the way polished everybody was. However once I noticed “RuPaul’s Drag Race” reruns on VH1, I used to be like, “That is actually life-changing.” And the way cool that that is changing into mainstream!
In a earlier interview, you mentioned sin and guilt because the themes of this work. Many artists have explored this theme in varied methods throughout totally different cultures and instances. Why do you suppose concepts round guilt and sin maintain such energy over us?
You’re made to do what you don’t need to do by [people] making you are feeling disgrace for the methods you act. And in [“Inebria me”], the sisters every have a confession, and I wished to make that a focus — with the nun, the spiritual individual.
In telenovelas, there’s at all times a priest [they] discuss to once they have troubles, you recognize? And I believe within the [Catholic practice of] confession, you will need to relieve your self of the disgrace and guilt. Nevertheless it’s virtually such as you relieve your self after which you are feeling disgrace, you recognize? And that’s the half that stops progress, evolution and freedom.
For somebody whose first impression of “Inebria me” is that it’s not for them, what do you suppose they’d be stunned to find or a component they’d get pleasure from?
Everybody on this piece is a star, everybody’s a diva. I believe all of them actually shine on their very own, they usually actually convey it with the performing. Their voices are all unimaginable, and their stage presence. Possibly they could possibly be into the scene design by Anthony Robles — it’s tremendous minimal, but it surely does a lot for the area in creating this oppressive world. I believe there’s something for everybody. It’s a narrative that may relate to lots of people.
