For L.A.-based musician, composer and artist San Cha, the Spanish language is a artistic gold mine. “One of my favorite Spanish words is ‘embriagarme,’ which I think the direct translation is ‘make me drunk’ or ‘intoxicate me,’” she says. “I love that word. I think there’s a song by Thalía that has that word, it’s called ‘Piel Morena,’ and every time she said 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 complicated. “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 lead to 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 basic narrative construction of the telenovela, however with a queer twist. “I wanted to hold [onto] the queerness of [the story] and the religious aspects 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 creating 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 really 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 might have expertise in conventional theater rising up? No, I didn’t. And I additionally didn’t watch too many films. I missed out on plenty of these very American experiences. Individuals can be like, “Do you know this movie?’ And “It’s like a classic,” and it’s like “No.” I used to be actually sheltered, , “I’m over here in Bible study” type 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 know the way my dad felt. My mother’s one remark was, “You didn’t sing rancheras. Everyone wants you to sing rancheras.” And I used to be like, “Oh, my God.” So additionally they got here to the closing night time with an enormous group, and I sang the rancheras for them on the finish.
How would you relate “Inebria me” to what’s thought-about a “traditional” opera? I might say it has a really clear narrative … every part is sung, apart from the components [where] the Man [is] speaking or talking.
I sing rancheras [and] that type of blends into operas. I didn’t develop up being an opera singer, or desirous to be an opera singer, however by some means 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 herald 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 wish to make the telenovela and set it to disco music … one thing digital, glamorous. It [speaks to] the phantasm of glamour, beneath every part 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 bear in mind, [the characters] would get very BDSM … like locking individuals up! As a child, I used to be feeling like … “Why am I watching this? I’m a child!”
“I didn’t grow up wanting to be an opera singer, but somehow it developed in that direction,” 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 assume visibility doesn’t at all times imply security or acceptance. I bear in mind being in San Francisco and seeing drag that wasn’t as polished and extra on the perimeter aspect of it.
I used to be … type of hating it once I bought 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, “This is literally 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 numerous 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 wish 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 non secular individual.
In telenovelas, there’s at all times a priest [they] speak to after they have troubles, ? And I believe within the [Catholic practice of] confession, it is very important relieve your self of the disgrace and guilt. Nevertheless it’s virtually such as you relieve your self and you then really feel disgrace, ? 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 carry it with the appearing. Their voices are all unimaginable, and their stage presence. Possibly they may very well be into the scene design by Anthony Robles — it’s tremendous minimal, but it surely does a lot for the house in creating this oppressive world. I believe there’s something for everybody. It’s a narrative that may relate to lots of people.
