A Slave Escapes, a Story Unfolds - New York Times
She was referring to indecent acts committed by Esteban Montejo, the real-life slave of the title, who lived alone in the forest for years after escaping the Cuban sugar plantation where he was born in 1860. Bestiality aside, a Catholic church in this leafy hedge-fund homeland might seem an unlikely place to stage a rare revival of Mr. Henze’s anti-priesthood, anti-American, anti-capitalist ode, the major event of this year’s Greenwich Music Festival.
But the enthusiastic reception awarded Ted Huffman’s excellent new production of the work demonstrated the open-minded attitude and artistic freedom often denied Mr. Henze, 83 — still an active composer and member of the Communist Party in Italy, where he has lived for more than 50 years. His left-wing politics and homosexuality made life difficult in Germany, his native country. His music also initially received a hostile welcome, deemed too expressive for the postwar avant-garde but too thorny for general consumption.
Mr. Henze wrote “El Cimarrón,” a striking musical theater work, in 1970 while living in Cuba. It is based on the “Autobiography of a Runaway Slave” by Miguel Barnet, who conducted extensive interviews with Montejo. After hiding in the forest, Montejo fought in the Cuban War of Independence in the late 1890s, saw the transition to Castro’s government and died at 113 in 1973.....
More Information:
“El Cimarrón” continues on Saturday and Sunday at
St. Catherine of Siena
4 Riverside Avenue
Riverside, Conn.
(203) 637-0536
greenwichmusicfestival.org
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