Zapopan’s new Centro Cultural Constitución will be the venue for a nearly two-hour performance by soprano Bárbara Padilla, who will once again sing on home turf Thursday, August 31, 8 p.m., directed by her friend Allen Vladimir and his Orquesta de Cámara de Zapopan (Zapopan Chamber Orchestra).
Many facets of Padilla’s life story have combined to create a dramatic story of “my adventure, so to speak,” she said in a phone interview from Houston.
Padilla explained that she sometimes gives motivational talks that recount this adventure. The talks reflect lows – a bout with cancer that occurred when she was beginning her career – as well as highs, which include practically becoming a household name after she rose to fame on the TV program “America’s Got Talent” and singing for two years with legendary Mexican singer and songwriter Juan Gabriel just before he died last year.
“I was a guest artist with him in perhaps 70 concerts,” she said.
“My first love is opera and classical music,” Padilla emphasized. “But around the period of ‘America’s Got Talent’ and Juan Gabriel, who was a wonderful artist, I also fell in love with classical crossover, similar to what Andrea Bocelli does. It’s good orchestral music or symphonic music, excerpts from arias, like what I did on television. Sometimes it’s called ‘popera.’ I do mariachi too,” she added.
On August 31, she will be aiming to provide an exceptional experience for the audience.
“It will be an extremely accessible program, with excerpts of arias, and material I’ve presented on TV. We want people to have a great time, to fall in love with opera and with good orchestral and symphonic music. When I’ve done this kind of thing in the past, people say, ‘I didn’t know I liked opera!’”
As part of her quest to provide an enjoyable experience for concertgoers, she will sing for a long time—an hour and 40 minutes.
“After Juan Gabriel, nothing is long,” she laughed. “The longest concert with him was over six hours in Mexico City on Mother’s Day. The audience kept asking for more. Singing with him opened a totally new world for me, with his Mexican public and people that were his fans in the U.S.”
A large part of her message, both musically and in her talks, reflects the help she received from her faith, friends and family. “You can never do anything alone, you have to depend on a society,” she underscored.
Bárbara Padilla in concert, Thursday, August 31, 8 p.m., Centro Cultural Constitución, Avenida Manuel M. Dieguez 369 at the corner of Avenida Venustiano Carranza, Colonia Constitución, Zapopan. Phone (cel) 332-305-8654.