Mexico’s best known arts festival, now ramping up for its October 2 kickoff, offers special allure to Jalisco audiences this year, in addition to its staggering lineup of international artists, such as the American and Emerson String Quartets, Spain’s National Dance Company and National Orchestra, France’s Ars Nova Instrumental Ensemble, the Peking Opera, Holland’s National Ballet, Mali’s Debademba, and Taiwan’s “A Moving Sound”— some 3,500 artists in total.
The Festival Internacional Cervantino (International Cervantes Festival), in its 44th year and with a solid reputation based on the quality of performers and its setting in jewel-like Guanajuato, hardly needs anything to make itself more attractive. Yet this year it has done just that by designating Spain and the state of Jalisco as invitees of honor.
In fact, the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) has been given the distinction of inaugurating the 22-day festival by performing, along with the group Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán and renowned Tapatía soprano Bárbara Padilla, an inaugural gala October 2 outside Guanajuato’s Alhóndiga de Granaditas, a building famed as a place of grisly revolutionary battles and for displaying on its gaunt walls the heads of four insurgents, including Miguel Hidalgo.
The JPO’s other two performances are set for the graceful Teatro Juarez, Guanajuato’s centerpiece venue.
Other Jalisco groups lined up are the Jalisco Ballet under choreographer Darius Blajer, who perform “Don Quijote” Thursday, October 6, 8 p.m., also outside the Alhóndiga; and the State Choir (Coro del Estado de Jalisco) performing “Cervantes & Shakespeare through choral music,” Thursday, October 6, 5 p.m. at the Templo de la Compañía.
This year’s Cervantino, as you may have suspected, commemorates the 400th anniversary of the death in 1616 of Miguel de Cervantes, author of what is considered the first modern novel, “Don Quijote de la Mancha.” Shakespeare also enters into the festival as another giant of modernity who happens to share the death date attributed to Cervantes.
So naturally, although the Cervantino Festival has always leaned heavily toward Cervantes (for example, in its signature groups of roving, young musicians, the so-called Estudiantina), this year it does so more than ever.
The festival boasts an excellent website, www.festivalcervantino.gob.mx, where you can search by date, category (such as world music or traditional dance), or venue (such as Teatro Juarez or Explanada de Alhóndiga).
To grasp the remarkable range of the festival, realize that on any one day there are six to 25 events to choose from, and they focus on theater, music and dance but also include circus, visual arts and literary conferences.
On day one, October 2, in addition to the JPO concert, one can choose from five conferences, or a concert by Askanyi, an eight-member world music group whose musicians are from Belgium, Congo, Burundi and Senegal. Artists from 38 countries will participate in the Cervantino this year.
And on its final day, choose from a literary conference featuring luminaries Fernando del Paso and Elena Poniatowska; music from the Cervantes era by the Spanish group Musica Ficta; an Austrian group, Sitarstation, that combines Indian sitar with jazz sounds; a theater presentation, “Zapato busca sapato,” with troupe members from Mexico, Brazil and Mozambique; a musical ensemble from the Academia Cervantino with members from Mexico and France; a multidisciplinary world music group from Jalisco with elements of circus, jazz, Huichol music and progressive folk rock; the National Ballet of Holland; and Artrageous, a group marrying rock, pop and visual art in their evening, outdoor spectacle.
Some events are free and ticket prices for the ones that are not appear to be 30 to 50 percent lower than what is normally charged in their respective venues.
Tickets can be purchased online at the festival website via Ticketmaster, www.festivalcervantino.gob.mx.
Hotel booking tip for Cervantino
Heading for Guanajuato for the Festival Cervantino on the spur of the moment, thinking you’ll find lodging when you get there, is a big no-no. If you do this, you’ll waste a time or money and quite possibly end up without a roof over your head. Hotel costs will be bit higher than usual but seasoned festival goers say hostels are fine during the FIC because you’re going to be out and about all day. A check of Air B&B on September 13 brought up 163 options ranging from 215 to 1,917 pesos. Frommer’s recommends Hotels.com, Trivago and Booking.com, among others.