Latino Studies Program

Presented by: IU Latino Studies Program

Where: Buskirk-Chumley Theater

Showtimes: Thursday, March 31st 7:00 pm

Pancho Villa from a Safe Distance is a bilingual cross-border opera about the life and death of the Mexican Revolutionary icon Pancho Villa. 

Commissioned by Ballroom Marfa, the project is the third installment of The Marfa Triptych, a genre-hopping trilogy of musical and visual performances by visionary composer Graham Reynolds, and featuring Beto Martinez, Paul Sanchez, and Liz Cass. The opera is an insightful examination of the Mexican and Mexican-American impact on the culture and politics of our nation, contributing to the current and timely conversation about borders and the limitations of the concept of delineated states.

The opera has been performed to rave reviews across the United States and Canada, and we are excited to bring this performance to our campus and community.

Exploring facts from Villa’s biography while also examining the mythology surrounding him, the opera will ask what Pancho Villa means to Mexican and American culture and where these meanings intersect and conflict. The opera brings together artistic collaborators from both sides of the river to engage in a borderless conversation about the shared history between Mexico and the United States,

Pancho Villa From a Safe Distance is the epic closing chapter in The Marfa Triptych.  Reynolds experiments with an exciting hybrid of composition and production techniques while leading an eight piece ensemble to bring Lagartijas Tiradas Al Sol’s fascinating libretto to an intensely visceral and intimate life.

The event is collaboratively organized by the Latino Studies Program, the Latin American Music Center at the Jacobs School of Music, IU Cinema, the Department of Theater, Drama and Contemporary Dance; the Music Theory Department; additional support provided by the Platform in Global Popular Music: A Research Laboratory in the Arts & Humanities; the College Arts & Humanities Institute; the IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Program; and the IU Institute for Advanced Studies.

Doors open at 6pm for this free general admission event. The estimated length of the program is 90 minutes. Wearing a mask indoors is strongly encouraged. Vaccine verification or negative covid test results within 48 hours required to enter the venue.