Inebria Me adapts Los Angeles-based composer, musician, and performance artist San Cha’s 2019 album of original music, La Luz de la Esperanza, into an experimental opera. Drawing inspiration from eclectic sources–Frederico Garcia Lorca, Robert Wilson, Winona Ryder in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa to name a few– Inebria Me‘s captivating narrative and libretto are driven by San Cha’s personal and artistic influences. Her rural Mexican immigrant family life; Bay Area and Los Angeles drag, queer nightlife, and DIY communities; childhood participation in Catholic church choirs; and familial cross-border experiences all converge in a narrative arc that defies linear conventions. San Cha combines sonic performance with innovative lighting, scenic design, theatrical elements, and video, to celebrate the liberating power of ascendant relationships and offer a nuanced exploration of tragedy and love.
San Cha asserts queer Black and brown presence and perspectives while both honoring and subverting two long-standing traditions; she merges the structural framework and theatrical arc of opera with the melodramatic emotive essence and storytelling methodologies of telenovelas (internal dialogues and flashback sequences for example). A central facet of the work lies in the representation of gender binaries through the opulent art of drag, challenging societal norms with a deliberate exaggeration of gender roles. In general, Inebria Me queers and dispels the cisgender and heteronormative archetypes that dominated the telenovelas of San Cha’s youth. The work introduces the character Dolores, a beauty of humble means who, after marrying wealthy Salvador, finds herself caught in a web of jealousy and abuse. During a particularly dark moment, Esperanza, a gender-less being of light and empowerment, visits Dolores, giving her strength to escape Salvador’s control and realize her true value.
The cast, musicians, and creative team reflect a diverse spectrum of queerness and cultural identity and as San Cha is a consummate collaborator, their collaborative contributions to this work are central to the piece. Alongside vocalists San Cha and Dorian Wood, Darian Donovan Thomas‘ musical arrangements highlight the talents of Phong Tran and Louis Coy across strings, percussion, harp, horns, woodwinds, and electronics, in a composed live score that fuses the long notes and strong vibrato of ranchera music with cumbia, mariachi, punk, and classical, while remaining contemporary and electronic-forward. With creative and video direction by Gerardo Gonzalez, lighting by Pablo Santiago, scenic design in consultation with Gabriela Ruiz, and featuring local artists in each production, this acclaimed and imaginative team is building a work that seamlessly embraces tradition and experimentation, and queer histories and self-determined futures.
Inebria Me is co-commissioned by Performance Space New York; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art; Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana; and Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theatre (REDCAT).