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When Jorge Martinez-Rios started with music as a child, he had no use for opera. But then, as a musician, he started hearing it.
“As soon as I started listening – one aria and another one – then seeing a full opera and then I thought, how can you not like it?” he said.
Now, as a sought-after musician himself and maestro, conducting for a number of area orchestras, he has a dream of introducing the people of the borderlands to some professional opera experiences.
Martinez-Rios and Erik Maese, CEO of Borderland Arts Foundation, have created an organization to expand the music experience in Las Cruces and surroundings. And on May 3 and 5 they will present a full-blown concert version of Puccini's tragic opera, La Bohème.
Among the guest performers are Santa Fe Opera apprentice artist, soprano Adia Evans; tenor Jehú Otero, a 2022-23 resident artist at Utah Opera; soprano Emily Michiko Jensen of the Boston Lyric Opera; and baritone Brandon Bell, resident artist at Pittsburgh Opera.
“This is a great collaboration with professional musicians from the region, the NMSU Philharmonic Orchestra, NMSU Opera Workshop, Centennial High School Choir and singers from the Santa Fe Opera,” Martinez-Rios said. “It’s going to be a really amazing production.”
The idea, he said, is to bring opera to Las Cruces, a taste of what happens in Santa Fe with an educational component for the children in our community.
On Thursday, May 2, Borderland Arts, La Frontera Opera is also hosting “Student Night at the Opera,” bringing in 500 area students to experience a sample of opera. They will hear arias from different voices and stories of opera and plot.
“I think what we are doing is key,” Martinez-Rios said. “Just a little taste and maybe one student will hear the soprano or the tenor or the bass and be like, that’s amazing, I want to do that, I think I can sing, and they will start singing and maybe they will have the concentration to hear a full opera.
“So, I think the most important thing for us leaders is to blend the seed of arts. Give them the right tools so they grow, doing productive things in life.”
Maese said the goal of La Frontera Opera includes trying to provide more arts opportunities in southern New Mexico: “Part of our mission is to not just be focused on Las Cruces, but to truly be a regional orchestra where we can go to smaller communities where they don’t have opportunities for symphonic works or opera. That’s why it’s called borderlands.”
It has been a little over a year since Borderland Arts Foundation was incorporated and “in that short period of time you can just see the need for it in the community because so many people are interested,” he said.
“We have so much potential down here,” Maese said. “People shouldn’t have to drive all the way to Santa Fe to get good opera. We want to be the second institution in New Mexico where these really good up-and-coming singers can really come and sing."
La Bohème takes place 7:30-9:30 p.m. Friday, May 3 and 3-5:30 p.m. Sunday, May 5 at the Atkinson Recital Hall, 1075 N. Horseshoe St. on the New Mexico State University campus. Information is available at borderlandartsfoundation.org.
