On a bleak New York afternoon in 1993, Tony-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, captivated by the title Like Water for Chocolate, slipped into a movie theatre to watch the Mexican film directed by Alfonso Arau. He, like many, fell under its spell. Soon after its 1992 release, the acclaimed movie became the highest-grossing foreign-language film in the United States.
Mexican writer Laura Esquivel鈥檚 poignant romance Like Water for Chocolate describes a family saga spanning generations, centered on the frustrated love affair between protagonists Tita de la Garza and Pedro M煤zquiz and the alchemy of food. The much-loved novel is interwoven with recipes for such emblematic dishes as poblano chiles in walnut sauce. It proved a harbinger of growing international interest in Mexican food鈥� some 20 years later, traditional Mexican cuisine was inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The movie and book sparked Wheeldon鈥檚 interest in Mexico. Travel there crystallized a love for the country and its culture. He traveled widely, visiting distinctly different states as Jalisco and Oaxaca, the Yucat谩n peninsula, and cosmopolitan Mexico City. Wheeldon also made deep and lasting friendships, including with the Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra. De la Parra introduced him to Esquivel and the idea of a ballet based on Like Water for Chocolate was born. Composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley, Wheeldon鈥檚 collaborators on the earlier full-length ballets Alice鈥檚 Adventures in Wonderland (2011) and The Winter鈥檚 Tale (2014), joined him on the project.
As part of research for the ballet, a co-production between American Ballet Theatre and The Royal Ballet (running through July 1), Wheeldon, Talbot, who fashioned the scenario with Wheeldon, and Crowley made trips to Mexico City. Because of the nature of the story and dimension of magical realism, it became evident early on that the aim would not be to put Mexico on stage, but rather to find a distillation鈥攖o determine, as Wheeldon says, 鈥渉ow to create a poetic abstraction of Mexican ideas, colors, and sounds in order to tell the story.鈥�
On a visit to the vast National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, Talbot took a break from the pre-Columbian collections, rested on a bench in the museum鈥檚 plaza, where he heard an otherworldly sound emanating from among reeds in a pool. It was, in fact, a recording of an ocarina, a type of ceramic flute, popular since Aztec times.
De la Parra, who served as consultant for the ballet, suggested adding the ocarina and other indigenous instruments鈥攁 teponaztli orlog drum, the single-headed drum known as a hu茅huetl, a bean pod shaker rattle, and the cedar flute. Prominent use of the marimba and harp, also characteristic of Mexican popular music, enhanceTalbot鈥檚 ballet score. Listeners hear a colorful world of sound, one requiring, at times, six percussionists and timpanist.
The guitar is at its heart, and is performed, on stage and in the pit, by Mexican guest artist Tom谩s Barreiro.
Set and costume designer Bob Crowley was drawn to the architecture of Luis Barrag谩n, the influential twentieth-century Mexican architect whose houses and fountains are found in Mexico City. Barrag谩n鈥檚 striking design of broad geometrical planes created from stucco, timber beams, or water; saturated colors, pink, blue, orange, rusty red; and play of light and shadow, is notable for the quietude and enchantment it inspires.The suspended beams of Crowley鈥檚 set鈥攕pare and elegant鈥攙ariously define the stage, stressing a distant horizon or drawing the perspective toward intimate interiors. Props such as tables, key in the novel and ballet鈥檚 narrative, also describe spaces. Not unlike Barrag谩n鈥檚 masterly use of light, Tony winner Natasha Katz, the production鈥檚 lighting designer, imbues the stage with color conveying mutability of mood and emotion.
This production counts as the biggest in Company history. In three acts, the staging calls for multiple dance floors, various set configurations, laser-cut custom fabrics; 145 costumes (more than 200 counting duplicates and triples), scores of clothing accessories; 250 props, from spoons and bowls, flowers, a giant and fantastical knitted cloth, to a horse puppet; and evocative video projections by Luke Halls.
In Wheeldon鈥檚 final pas de deux, Crowley鈥檚 landscape recedes to its essence, as Tita and Pedro鈥檚 union gains full expression. The apotheosis of their love is yet made greater by a final masterstroke, the introduction of song, affecting and absorbing, newly composed by Talbot and performed live by soprano Maria Brea. Drawn from lines of the poem 鈥淪unstone鈥� by the celebrated Mexican writer Octavio Paz, it considers existential questions, no less the transformative possibility of love.
