The Mouth of the Gods: Music theatre celebrating London’s Latin American communities

Edith Ramos Guerra

Border Crossings is bringing The Mouth of the Gods, an immersive theatrical celebration of Latin America’s Indigenous peoples to Hoxton Hall from 27 November to 1 December 2024. At the show’s core lies the recently rediscovered short 18th century opera San Francisco Xavier, with music in a mix of baroque and Indigenous styles, written in the Chiquitano language, a work never performed in the UK. This 18th century pieces is blended with ancestral dances and drama with extraordinary baroque music to create a music theatre piece featuring soprano Edith Ramos Guerra from Peru alongside tenor Rafael Montero.

Here Michael Wallings, artistic director of Border Crossings, introduces the project.

It was back in 2021, in the thick of the pandemic, that Border Crossings first got to know Rafael
Montero. He’d sought us out, knowing that we ran the Origins Festival of Indigenous cultures, and
that I’d also directed quite a bit of opera. It’s a pretty unusual combination, I suppose, but Rafael is
even more so: a Quechua and Aymara man from Argentina, who is also an operatic tenor… And
what he shared with us was richer still – a short opera from the 18th century, with music in a blend of
baroque and Indigenous styles, written in the Chiquitano language. It had never been performed in
England – of course it hadn’t! But my curiosity was aroused….

Three years later, we’re getting ready to present this beautiful and uplifting piece as part of a
performance we’re calling The Mouth of the Gods. The original opera is a vision of Paradise, full
of dances to celebrate a Latin Utopia. It’s also only 25 minutes long. We realised that in order to
make sense of this piece in a London show, we had to put it into context, so that it became an offer
for a better future after the challenges faced by Indigenous people in the past and present. We
started to explore the histories of the continent, its astonishingly rich and colourful Indigenous
cultures, the stories of their interactions with Europe, the huge variety of textiles, ceramics and
musical instruments held in London’s museums. Slowly we put together a show that combines
traditional and modern dances from the region, puppets modelled on figures found in burials, an
embroidered mantle from the remote region of Paracas, shamanic practices and children’s choirs.
We looked into other music from the region, and were astonished by the beauty and vitality of what
we found. The combination of all these different art forms is allowing us to relate stories and
histories from across the continent.

This isn’t something we could have done alone. What we have been able to do is to offer an open
and creative space where the artistic work of London’s Latinx communities can be combined to make
music theatre. Some of the people involved are community artists, like the incredibly dedicated team
of embroiderers who have been working on the Paracas mantle since March; or the insightful and
energetic core dance team, who embody an Indigenous community onstage. Others are established
professionals: puppeteers, actors, musicians, choreographers…..

At the heart of any operatic performance are the singers, so this was where we felt the need to reach
out beyond the local, and to bring in an international artist from Peru itself. Joining Rafael will be
Edith Ramos Guerra, making her first appearance in the UK. Edith is a truly great performer and a
cultural ambassador for her people, who combines a deep knowledge of Indigenous Andean music
with the operatic skills of baroque performance. 

The Mouth of the Gods – Border Crossings at Hoxton Hall, further details from the website.