OSVALDO GOLIJOV La pasión según San Marcos

La Pasión Según San Marcos by Osvaldo Golijov transports us to an imagined world where different styles of music, languages, singers and dancers intermingle to create a vibrant musical drama infused with many elements of Latin America's diverse cultures. This unique Pasión is set in the form of a Brazilian or Caribbean Lenten celebration taking place in the streets. News of the drama that is unfolding is passed on by voices and drums, the traditional instruments of those who were carried off from Africa to be slaves in the Americas. Golijov's Pasión evokes Brazilian samba, Cuban salsa, Spanish flamenco and Argentine tango through its creative use of percussion, brass, guitar and accordion. It is a highly innovative composition in an artistically stylized form, but it clearly draws its inspiration from the hybrid character of today's Latin American cultures. 

In addition to the surprising mix of musical styles, different singers and dancers, both male and female, portray the roles of the main characters--Jesus, Judas, Mark and Peter. The role-switching by different soloists might be confusing at first, but it is also an intriguing device that makes the piece unique not only for its music but for its new interpretation of the biblical story itself. Golijov's conception and his music are quite original, but the cultural context of his creative team of performers--it is the Schola Cantorum chorus from Venezuela and the other Latin American musicians, drummers, and dancers--that gives his Pasión its transforming force. The use of drums and dance infuses this Pasión with Afro-American expressions and the spirit of Latin America's syncretic form of Christianity. The role of the performers, either in music, song or dance, is an affirmation that African beliefs are still surviving there. 

Because of its large black population Brazil is very close to its African roots, despite the racial mixing that has taken place. Afro-Brazilians, like their counterparts elsewhere in the Americas, were very quick to adapt their native religious practices and beliefs to Christianity during the colonial era, combining the Lucumi-Yoruba religious rites, for example, with Catholic ritual. In Brazil those religious practices have different names, Condomblé in Bahía, Macumba or Umbanda in Río de Janeiro, and Xangó in Recife, but they are all variants of the Condomblé. Historically Condomblé was not only a spiritual practice, but also a form of resistance to the dominant white society. Despite strong opposition by civil and religious authorities, the creative acts of self-conscious African slaves and their descendants made possible the emergence and growth of these Afro-Brazilian religions. In time those practices went beyond social class and ethnicity and became popular among the general population. 

In Condomblé, as in the Catholic Church, you have a spiritual guide or priest, named babalåo-orishá or pai de santo or mae de santo (father or mother of the saint) who acts as the intermediary between the orishas, or gods, and their followers. In their syncretic form, the orishas are often a combination of African gods and Catholic saints. However, the orishas are very different from the concept of Catholic saints because they have more earthly human characteristics. They are considered to be superior to humans, but not necessarily morally superior. In the African tradition human beings and gods lived in the same world. The physical world is as important for the orishas as it is for the humans. Good and evil are not conceived in absolute terms but rather are related to each other since they express different aspects of the essential life force. Even the divine forces have destructive and constructive possibilities in this conception. The interplay among these forces is dramatized in religious rituals by dancers playing the role of different orishas. 

In Condomblé the supreme god and creator of the world is Olofi-Olorún, who can be identified with the Crucified Christ. However, the life force of the creator is thought to be in all creatures and things. When Olorún-Olofi was tired of ruling the earth, he turned his kingdom over to Obatalá, the king of purity and whiteness. Obatalá in Brazil is a major Yoruba deity and the father of the gods, who is sometimes identified with one of the Catholic virgins. Traditionally either a woman or a man can dance this double-sexed orisha, who is maternal and kind, but also can be an old man, a knight, a cripple or a wise man. 

In Golijov's Pasión different soloists, including both men and women, portray Jesus as if the performers were representing his different sides, much as they would do with the orishas. We also see the same performers portraying Mark, Peter and Judas, and, at one point, there is a dialogue between Jesus and Peter played by the same soloist, the Cuban singer and dancer Reynaldo Gonzalez. Another striking example of this role switching is the attempt by the singers or dancers to portray the human side of both Jesus and Judas. In this drama Judas is represented as a human in conflict and Jesus as a man with different human characteristics, perhaps demonstrating the lack of clear-cut boundaries between the sacred and the profane in the African tradition. 

"The Aria of Judas," a flamenco song sung by the Brazilian jazz singer Luciana Souza, expresses the wish of Judas to "renegar" or reject the world as it is, and to return in the future to a more truthful one. The same soloist sings "Agonia," an aria by Jesus just before his betrayal by Judas. Later, during Souza's tender rendition of Jesus' "Confession," Reynaldo Gonzalez appears in a white robe elevated above the chorus, dancing as if possessed by the holy spirit. Toward the end of the drama, Souza portrays Jesus again in his suffering, uttering his cry "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 

At the beginning of Golijov's Pasión, Deraldo Ferreira, a capoeira dancer from Brazil, plays the berimbau, a Brazilian stringed instrument, while portraying the fishermen caught in a net. After the arrest of Jesus, Ferreira performs a break dance called the "Dance of the White Sheet." Who is the dancer here? From the scriptures, we only know that he is a follower of Jesus who did not run away when the other disciples fled. Capoeira was originally a martial art form used by the slaves to defend themselves from their masters, but here it is a dance, and we need to keep in mind that the goal of dancers in the African tradition is to be possessed by the "gods" or spirits. 

The electrifying effect of introducing drums, dancing and popular songs into the biblical story is what gives Golijov's Pasión its transforming power. While most of us perceive rhythm by hearing, Afro-Americans often perceive it by movement, and rhythm is the forceful element in this musical drama that opens up new ways of understanding the crucifixion. No wonder audiences who have experienced Golijov's Pasión have jumped up from their seats at the end of the performance to applaud. It is hard to sit still when you are moved by these new rhythms and possessed by the spirit of the gospel reborn.