Transformative piece: Composer Jorge Martin at the helm of Opera Southwest's 'Before Night Falls' to be staged at NHCC

Feb. 24—The Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas was a dissident, unapologetically gay, political prisoner who escaped oppression and spent the final 10 years of his life in the United States.

The Cuban American composer Jorge Martin was mesmerized by Arenas' memoir "Before Night Falls" but couldn't see it as an opera.

"I didn't think it would work as an opera because it was a life," Martin said in a telephone interview from his home in El Paso.

Opera Southwest will perform Martin's musical take on "Before Night Falls" at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 1; 2 p.m. Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3.

Martin developed a through line to tell the story with flashbacks; it begins at the end when Arenas is dying of AIDS.

"A friend gave me a copy of the book," Martin said. "It was very entertaining and wonderful. It was so rich with emotion.

"He flashes back throughout his life," he continued. "He takes his life with the help of a friend. He knew he was going to die."

Despite such a tragic end, Martin insisted the opera is not tragic.

"He was a writer and the arts can be transformative," he said.

Arenas began by siding with the rebels at the start of the Cuban revolution. But by the end, he became a vocal critic. Eventually, he published a book overseas without governmental permission.

"It caused a ruckus" Martin said.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

He was eventually forced to renounce his work, which was considered "counterrevolutionary." Arenas was able to leave Cuba in 1979, when Fidel Castro attempted to rid the country of those he deemed socially "undesirable."

"In 1980, a crowd broke into the Peruvian Embassy," Martin said. "They're not on Cuban soil anymore."

The embassy was flooded with people wanting to escape, becoming an embarrassment to Castro.

"He let out homosexuals, undesirables and psychopaths," Martin said.

Arenas knew he would not be released because he was a dissident. He noticed someone had hand-scrawled his name on his visa. But the "e" resembled an "i." Arenas dotted the letter and managed to get out.

The opera is about the search for freedom, Martin said.

"The character of Reinaldo was very compelling to me," he said. "He made enemies on the left and the right — on the right because he was homosexual and on the left because he was anti-Castro."

The theme of escape runs throughout the libretto.

Martin had not written any music in the Cuban style before.

"The piece is permeated with particular rhythms from Santeria," he said.

Santeria is an African diasporic religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose through a process of merging between the traditional Yoruba religion of West Africa, the Roman Catholic form of Christianity, and Spiritism.

"It's a drum pattern," Martin added.

"I woke up from a dream with a melody," he continued. "I jotted it down; I knew it was for this."

Because the story is so male-dominated, Martin added to female muses to include the female voice.

"It makes it more lyrical," he said. "He dies at the end, but it's not a tragedy. "His life has a more uplifting story."

"Before Night Falls" stars Brian James Myer as Rey.