San Diego Spotlight : Las Voces Vocal Ensemble Out to Fill Latin Music Void

Although San Diego is a border city, there is an ironic dearth of Hispanic music available from the customary providers of classical music. Under the leadership of Xiomara Di Maio, the vocal ensemble Las Voces is attempting to remedy this lacuna.

Devoted to performing 20th-Century Latin American music, Las Voces made an auspicious debut in May and will perform again Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Chula Vista Public Library Auditorium.

Arousing curiosity about Latin American music has been no easy task for Di Maio, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, who came to San Diego two years ago after finishing a graduate degree in conducting at Indiana University.

“Whenever I talk about Latin American music, the first thing people say is, ‘O, you mean mariachi music’,” Di Maio lamented.

Although 20th-Century Latin American music cannot be squeezed into a single aesthetic category, much of it is characterized by rhythmic variety and intensity, as well as unusual harmonic combinations. Some of it is derived from European models, while other strands are indebted to indigenous folk traditions. In any case, the repertory far exceeds the predictable, popular conventions of mariachi music.

Di Maio and her singers champion the virtually unknown music of Venezuelan composers Modesta Bor and Inocente Carreno, Argentine Carlos Guastavino, and Cuban-American Enrique Ubieta. In May, Las Voces gave the West Coast premiere of two works by Ubieta, his 1972 “Misa Cubana” and his 1987 musical tribute to Heitor Villa-Lobos, “La Cubachiana.” Each will be repeated on Wednesday’s Las Voces program.

A composer and journalist in his native Cuba, Ubieta came to the U.S. in 1965 via Paris, where he composed film and television music. Ubieta settled in New York City, where notice as a composer came slowly. In 1968, his orchestral opus, “Typical Essay Number Three,” was performed in Carnegie Hall, and his comic opera “Mefistofeles,” written in Cuba in 1964, received its American premiere at New York’s Lincoln Center. His “Misa Cubana,” commissioned by the music director of New York’s Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, was widely performed and then recorded by the Norman Luboff Chorale in the 1970s.

“In form and orchestration, the ‘Misa Cubana’ reflects the authentic character of popular Cuban music, while using the language of contemporary serious music,” he observed in a phone interview from his New York apartment. “It is an eclectic work, combing the traditional sacred text and Gregorian chant within the framework of Cuban ethnic music.”

If Ubieta’s exposure and acclaim here have been modest, they have been essentially positive.

“I’ve been well received by the accredited press across the U.S. In fact, in my entire career, I’ve never had a disappointing review.”

For Las Voces’ Dec. 6 Christmas concert in the University of San Diego’s Founders’ Chapel, Ubieta has composed a holiday choral piece “Voces de Navidad,” dedicated to Di Maio and playing on her ensemble’s name in the title.

“This Christmas Carol, which means ‘Christmas voices,’ simply gathers the exclamations of joy from every past Christmas and pays homage to that history which has made us better in spirit.”

Sets ‘R Us. San Diego Opera Scenic Studio, general director Ian Campbell’s profitable cottage industry out on Commercial Avenue, continues to score.

The set the studio built for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new production of Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra” is making a stunning impression on Windy City opera audiences. The opera, which opened Sept. 25, will be broadcast on here KPBS-TV (Channel 15) December 16 and 22.

The simple but highly evocative set was designed by Yale Repertory Theatre’s resident designer Michael Yeargan. Tall reflective panels with rear projections were employed with large two-dimensional symbols to suggest everything from arid desert vistas to the Roman Senate.

The opera itself, much maligned after it failed to inaugurate the new Metropolitan Opera in 1966 with a musical triumph, sounded harmonically fresh and proved surprisingly dramatic in the trimmed-down 1975 version Chicago used. Among the cast members, soprano Catherine Malfitano as Cleopatra emerged as a clear audience favorite. Tenor Jacque Trussel sang Caesar Augustus, one of the primary male roles in Barber’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama. Local opera buffs will recall Trussel’s appearances in San Diego Opera productions from 1983-85, especially his Don Jose in the 1985 “Carmen.”

The Scenic Studio is now assembling the sets for Greater Miami Opera’s upcoming production of Alberto Franchetti’s “Christoforo Colombo,” part of a 500th anniversary Columbus celebration.