Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli

Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli (Ribald Flowersong) is the first contemporary opera exclusively developed in Nahuatl language and accompanied by an orchestra of Native Mexican instruments. It was written between June, 2011 and January, 2013 by Mexican composer Gabriel Pareyon, after more than a decade of literary, musical and linguistic research. Its text and poetical contents directly come from the homonymous poem, compiled by friar Bernardino de Sahagun amidst the 16th century, among Nahua informants that survived the Conquest of Mexico. This original text is comprised within the collection of Aztec songs known under the title of Cantares Mexicanos or Mexicacuicatl.

Premiered in August, 2014, in Arcelia, Guerrero, under the guidance of music and stage director Jose Navarro-Noriega, the piece's plot originates from a reinterpretation proposed by historian and linguist Patrick Johansson, on the erotic sense of the concept cuecuechcuicatl (playful ribald) and the expressive whole that it embodies: song, poetry, music and dance, where sexuality is rather a source for philosophical-existential depth.

The piece offers a carefully analyzed vision of the Nahua universe without pursuing an archaeological reconstruction or attempting a folklore piece. It proposes a distinct operatic structure that brings new ways to relate the arts, scenically and methodologically, different to the European tradition.

The orchestra is formed exclusively by ancestral original Mexican instruments (mainly percussions such as huehuetl and teponaztli, but also a wide gamut of Native Mexican aerophones), for which a score with an original notation distinct from the pentagram signature style, has been created based on symbols of the ancient iconography of Mexico.

Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli proposes a treatment of the voice, based in the articulation and dramatization of each word in Nahuatl, totally different to Western traditional vocalization. The expressiveness involved does not allow any artistic discipline to overtake another, allowing poetry, dance and music to compose a symbolic whole.

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