BREAKING THE WAVES (Mazzoli) Guanajuato 2025 Lili Nogueras, Alejandro Paz, Mayela Yépiz, José Luis Gutiérrez

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Breaking the Waves   
• Composer: Mazzoli Missy   
• Libretto: Royce Vavrek    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Sala Miguel Covarrubias, Teatro Juárez, Guanajuato, Mexico  
• Recorded: October 2025
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Lili Nogueras, Alejandro Paz, Mayela Yépiz, José Luis Gutiérrez, Juan Marcos Martínez, Sandra, Hugo Barba, Hugo Barba, Gerardo Rodríguez,
• Conductor: José Areán  
• Orchestra: Orquesta Juvenil de la UNAM  
• Chorus: Coro Staccato  
• Chorus Master: Antonio Ugalde  
• Stage Director: Marcelo Lombardero   
• Stage Designer: Samuel Canales  
• Costume Designer: Kristina Vázquez  
• Lighting Designer: Roberto López-Rodríguez  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Canal 22  
• Date Published: 2025  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Act I.
Young Bess finds love with Jan, an oil rig worker, and they marry in the strict Calvinist church. Although they receive the blessing of the church elders, Jan, a Norwegian, is seen as an outsider. Bess takes her wedding vows seriously and undergoes a sexual awakening with her new husband. It is only a matter of time before Jan has to return to work on the rigs, plunging Bess into a deep depression. In conversations with God, Bess seeks answers and comfort, hoping that spiritual intervention will bring Jan home. Soon after, a near-fatal accident on the rig forces Jan to seek urgent medical attention.

Act II:
Bess learns that the accident has left Jan partially paralyzed. She believes it is her fault, as she has prayed to God to bring him home. Jan knows that Bess would never break their marriage covenant, but he feels he must free her so she can live a full life. He encourages her to seek out men to sleep with and keep him informed of what is happening so it appears they are making love. When Jan attempts suicide by overdosing on pills, Bess is certain she must obey her husband and find lovers. Failed attempts to woo a handsome doctor and lukewarm sexual encounters with strangers coincide with a worsening of Jan’s health. When Bess finds a man and has sex with him outside an old shed, Jan’s health stabilizes.

Act III
Bess’s reputation catches up with her, and she is excommunicated from the Church. She doesn’t understand why, as she is simply following her husband’s wishes, and her recovery seems directly proportional to her extramarital activities. Bess finds herself aboard a large merchant ship where she is savagely raped and stabbed by a group of sadistic sailors. A second voyage leaves her near death, and through the kindness of a stranger, her lifeless body is taken to the hospital. She dies as Jan awakens from surgery, his health remarkably improved. The elders agree to give Bess a Calvinist funeral but insist that she be buried as a sinner and send her soul to hell. Jan, fully recovered, steals the body before it is buried and throws her remains into the ocean. The bells of God toll Bess’s melody.

(Visited 58 times, 1 visits today)