Capital Comments
By Jim Johnston March 21, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Opera in Mexico City

I went to the opera at the Palacio de Bellas Artes the other night to see Puccini’s Tosca, followed by drinks on the 41st floor of the Torre Latinoamericana (just across the street). It was an evening that mixed culture and glamour in a way that felt very “big city.”

Opera, the most complex and expensive art form devised by man, is an acquired taste for many. When I was in my early twenties I had a roommate in New York City who loved classical music and opera. I would leave the house whenever she put it on. One day I was home in bed with the flu, and out of boredom and curiosity decided to play one of her opera LP’s (remember them?) and read the libretto while I listened. The moment of enlightenment came while hearing Leontyne Price sing Il Trovatore and discovering there was a reason for those high C’s.

The word ‘unnatural’ is often used by people who don’t like opera, but I think of it as unnatural in the way that Olympic athletes are unnatural—a god-given natural capacity is developed by lots of hard work into something extraordinary.

There is a long history of opera in Mexico. Traveling European companies visited in the 18th and 19th centuries, Tosca was first performed in 1901 (a year after its Italian premier), and the young Maria Callas made headlines here in the early 1950s (her interpolated high E-flat at the end of the triumphal scene in Aida is now part of opera legend—you can get the CD). But Mexico City does not have a regular opera season these days. Operas are announced a month or two in advance and there is no such thing as a subscription, so it all comes as a happy surprise when the ads appear.

Puccini based his opera Tosca on a French play which had been a big success for the actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1895. The action takes place in Rome in 1800 and includes political intrigue, jealous love, attempted seduction, and a suicidal leap off the Castel Sant’Angelo at the end. In this production, the soprano simply walked off behind a column, making for a very disappointing and confusing finale. Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian, who has sung in many big opera houses around the world, took on the title role with a large and mostly impressive voice (the lower reaches were weak). Fernando de la Mora, a Mexican tenor who also has sung in the big leagues, was tall, dark and handsome as the hero Cavaradossi, but his voice, while forceful and dramatic, has lost the bloom of youth. The bad guy, Scarpia, was sung well by Genaro Sulvarán, a regular at Bellas Artes. Orchestra conductor Enrique Patrón de Rueda brought out many musical details that often are overlooked. The sets, by famed Mexican architect Ricardo Lego

rreta (designer of the Camino Real Hotel here in DF, as well as a private home in San Miguel), were simple and modern. Regardless of musical quality, a trip to the Palacio de Bellas Artes is always a special event. The surprising Aztec-Deco interior, the Tiffany glass stage curtain, and the chance to gawk at the gente ‘nice’ of Mexico City during the intermissions make it all worthwhile.

Several important opera events are coming soon to Mexico City. On March 28, soprano Renée Fleming will give a recital of opera arias with orchestra. Many consider her to be the finest soprano of our day, and if you are thinking of how to begin to appreciate opera, this is a chance to learn from the best; it is rare for performers of this caliber to appear in Mexico City. Tickets can be bought at the box office or through C.

As part of the annual Festival de Centro Histórico (http://www.festival.org.mx/) the opera Jenufa by Czech composer Leos Janacek will be presented on April 10, 13, 20 and 22. This gritty tale of betrayal and murder in a Czech village is set to compelling, but challenging, music by one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.

There are rumors that Placido Domingo will be appearing at the Festival de Centro Histórico. Tickets are not being sold yet, but you can sign up on Ticketmaster for advance notice.

San Miguel promotes opera awareness through a benefit concert on March 15 at the Ángela Peralta Theater. Entitled Cantantes Camino al Estrellas (Singers on the Road to Stardom) it will feature arias from the world’s most beloved operas, sung by young Mexican singers who will be competing for scholarship money. Tickets are available at the box office. For more information, visit the website: www.operasanmiguel.org.

I have often been asked how I became interested in opera, so here are a few tips for novices:

1. Buy or borrow a complete opera—anything by Mozart is an easy starting point, also Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s La Traviata, Il Trovatore or Aida, or Puccini’s La Boheme. Make sure the opera comes with a complete libretto and English translation.

2. Pick a day when you are home sick, or when you have lots of free time on your hands. Opera takes time.

3. Read the words as they are being sung—this is probably the most important thing.

4. Imagine that you are the one singing—visualizing the act of singing can give you a greater appreciation of what the performer is actually doing, and how difficult it is (a high C is a matter of faith as well as technique).

5. Have some cookies nearby.

Jim Johnston, a 10-year resident of San Miguel, now lives in Mexico City. 

He is the author of Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler. Visit his blog: www.mexicocitydf.blogspot.com. 

The Belly of the Beast
By Blake Kutner

Welcome to San Miguel

Chef Blake Kutner arrived in San Miguel in late January, at the behest of local chef/celebrity Donnie Masterton and his wife Cynthia, to participate in the opening of the much-hyped The Restaurant at Sollano 16. Kutner led the kitchen at Medjool in San Francisco, after cooking in kitchens in New Orleans and Spain. Before moving to San Miguel, Masterton honed his kitchen skills in New York as the chef de cuisine at Tavern on the Green, before taking the helm at Zibbibo when he returned to California.

Kutner has been blogging, chronicling the trials and tribulations of opening an ambitious restaurant in Mexico—the joys of staffing, building kitchen appliances from scratch, installing countertops that are never quite level and negotiating iron prices with welders that might shine their boots with rooster’s blood. Atención will run a series of excerpts, so for the full text, visit the blog at www.blakesmexico.blogspot.com 


Welcome to San Miguel

This is my first attempt at blogging so bear with me. I guess I’m making it a little hard on myself as I’m trying to do too many things at the same time. Trying to keep in touch with my friends and family. Trying to keep a journal of a trip to a part of Mexico where I’ve never been and thus have a lot to learn culturally, geographically, historically etc. and finally trying to document the opening of a new restaurant which, although I’ve experienced several times before, I’ve never been so audacious or maybe so foolish as to try to document. While I’m in the caveat-making section, I have to say that, given all of those lofty goals, I can’t be held responsible if anyone gets bored or offended or skipped or ragged on.

Anyway, while awaiting our flight, I meet Andrew, my housemate, co-sous chef and Real World buddy. The only other dude waiting for the flight who looks like he might be anything like a cook. You know...tattoos, Dickies work pants, black slip-on vans, scruff. To make a long story short, we arrive in Leon a couple of hours later. He gets stopped by the totally random red light/green light security monitor and has to empty this huge box of cooking utensils, linen napkins, Cuisinart, etc. that the chef has sent down with him and then pay some funky import tax.

The restaurant is in a building within one block of the main church and garden square right in the heart of San Miguel. It is the interior courtyard of a large U-shaped building with the kitchen and bar area behind the main U, and the offices, walk-in, dry storage and prep area in a separate building. There is all kinds of San Miguel history that explains why the restaurant is in a historic building with a large outer wall protecting it from the street. I guess the key elements are that the city was at one point under Spanish occupation, and the Spanish aristocrats liked to build large walls to keep the riffraff from checking out their sweet pads (kind of like the French quarter in New Orleans) and that the whole center of the city is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site so nobody can really change building structure. Anyway, the point being that Donnie and Cynthia have had to build this restaurant within the confines of a previously existing building whose wings are a high-end furniture and home decor store. But
, given said limitations, the place is incredible. Cynthia has designed everything from the chandeliers, to the tiles surrounding our kitchen and hood, to the tables and chairs including recessed wine cabinets in the dining room, crazy paisley cowhide banquette upholstery (cooler than it sounds) and a huge wooden bar complete with built-in cash register and waiter station.

The night out is fun mostly because Donnie is a superstar. Every bar we enter is like cruising Long Beach with Snoop Dogg. Hugs, pounds, free drinks, lots and lots of cheek kisses, DJ high fives. We somehow manage to hit all five of the critical San Miguel bars before heading to bed.

Opening up The Restaurant

A lot of the process of opening a restaurant is pretty mundane stuff that doesn’t really change much whether you go through it in the US or Mexico.

A classic activity of the pre-opening experience is taking recipes from a variety of sources and putting them on the computer for some sort of recipe book. Some guys are real ambitious about this. They want precise yields and/or food costs. Some are real anal. Everything in grams. Translate all measurements to weights so we can be more precise. Some chefs try to pretend that they write all of their own recipes, which they usually don’t (Hope I didn’t burst anyone’s bubble there.). Usually it involves copying something from a paper source onto a computer, where it more likely than not will end up as nothing more than another paper printout to be put in a different book. That’s what I did on Friday. All day. With a brief break to get about 60 keys made (there are a lot of doors between the restaurant and the store).

The best part of the day was when the dudes who are installing/building our new walk-in show up at 6pm to install the fan in preparation for the possibility that the polyurethane dude is going to show up that night to insulate the walls. The dude drives a huge truck that completely blocks off the entire street and somehow powers his polyurethane spray paint gun or whatever it is. Anyway, point being that he has to come in the middle of the night when there isn’t too much traffic. But, of course, when the workmen leave at 9pm they still don’t know if their compadre is planning to show up that night. And, in typical Mexican fashion, they don’t seem real worried about it, nor do they think I should be. They are like, we’ll call Donnie, eventually, when we know. Ummm, we are talking about someone (me) having to come to work in the middle of the night and hang out with the polyurethane dude, and you guys aren’t ready to tell me at 9pm whether or not that’s going to happen. Maybe, just maybe, I have some other thin
gs I might want to do between now and 5am. He didn’t come that night, and it’s totally unclear as to when he is planning on showing up.

Headed out to the country

Luckily, though, for every couple of days when Mexico seems too similar to the US, we get one where it’s totally kick butt. That was today. Ricardo is raising lamb, a type of Australian lobster that looks a hell of a lot like a fresh water crawfish, wine grapes and broccoli at his farm south of San Miguel near Dolores Hidalgo. Pretty sweet place, especially if your name is Blake and you happen to love lamb and crawfish. We got to his house and immediately busted into full catering action. I, of course, got the glorious assignment of breaking down the whole lamb. And I mean whole. Head, tongue, eyes, liver, heart, lungs, kidney etc. Fresh doesn’t even describe it. Warm is a better word for what we are dealing with. As in only a few hours from life. It was interesting though because in my fairly limited experience with whole lambs, they have all been from one farm and thus all of one variety. This was a Mexican variety that is a little more tropical (no wool), very prolific (each female averages 3 2/3 kid litte
rs in her first 2 years) and dines on a diet exclusively of broccoli. Needless to say, not real fatty. Actually, extremely lean with quite thick membranes between muscle groups. Breaking a lamb usually involves either a very heavy cleaver or, as we used at Laiola, a hacksaw. Mexicans seem to be big fans of power tools, so we used a sawsall. Makes a pretty scary scene to a small Mexican child to see three gringos in the kitchen breaking a 40lb head-on lamb with a sawsall. Anyway, we got it done. Here’s the menu we broke out:

1st course: Grilled Rack of Lamb and Australian Lobster Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Roasted Garlic Herb Butter

2nd course: Lamb Loin, Heart, Liver and Kidney Crostinis (on Fernando’s Ciabatta and Focaccia) with Garlic and Rosemary or Tapenade

3rd course: Leg of Lamb two ways—Grilled Hind Leg Wrapped in Hoja Santa Leaves and Fore Legs Roasted with Orange-Ginger Vinaigrette

4th course: Lamb Neck, Chickpea and Tomato Tagine with Vegetable Couscous

5th course: Fig, Balsamic, Caramelized Onion and Thyme Tart, Plum, Ginger and Vanilla Tart and Local Goat Camembert

At the break between the 2nd and 3rd courses we went out on 4-runners and mules—the ATV, not the animal—to check out the farm in all its glory. First of all, you gotta like any place where 8-year old boys and girls can ride 4-runners completely unsupervised and wild style. Mexico seems to me like a real sweet, literally and figuratively, place to be a kid. At least, the Mexico I have been seeing. These kids have more freedom, more adventures and more fun than anyone since Huck Finn. Not to mention eating a pretty crazy diet ranging from Lucky Charms to lamb liver in the course of one day.

Unfortunately, neither the wine grapes nor broccoli were currently flourishing, so we hung out with the lamb for a while and watched the dogs chase crawfish. Anyway, we had a great day out on the ranch. Hopefully we’ll get back there once his newer and better wines are ready.