Blanca y Pura (c) 2009 Mattroi Berger
Written for a UC Irvine grad production of Nilo Cruz’s Lorca in a Green Dress, Blanca y Pura is the climactic finale to this strange dream-journey play. Closer to understanding his death and the world he must cross to/from, Federico García Lorca and a cryptic, otherwise nameless Flamenco Dancer sing of dreams, memories and White, Pure Light.
The director and I decided we wanted a haunted melody, one that could express itself through cante hondo while building and bubbling larger and larger, crossing back over itself and weaving its pieces together, just as a dream would.
I foreshadowed the opening guitar swell and other small elements found here earlier in the play, so that this final number could drop in with the feel that it was part of an epic, had been a long time coming. I wanted it to play as well - as dreams often mix light and dark, joy and pain - so I took a step back from its early driving melody to give it a chance to dance some Flamenco - All in all, Lorca’s poetry is so gorgeous that I really didn’t need to do much more than pass it a few dance steps and watch it move. The finale is a long, large crescendo, crashing in on itself, a prayer chant to the last thing we see in this world, and - perhaps - the first thing we see in the next. That White, Pure Light.
White and pure light there is in my song.
Sun, cinnamon and honey is in my chest.
White and pure light there is in my song.
Flower and green sea in my dark death.
That raises itself, that is raised.
That opens my eyes to that dream.
White and pure light there is in my song.
Sun, cinnamon, and honey is in my chest.
White and pure light there is in my song.
Flower and green sea in my dark death.
I do not want any more crying.
Neither more flowers and neither any more prayers.
White and pure light there is in my song.
Sun, cinnamon and honey in my dark death.
White and pure light there is in my song.
Sun, cinnamon and honey is in my chest.
White and pure light is in my song.
Salt and sweet honey in my dark death.
Vocals: the incredible Melissa Lusk
Lyrics by Lorca, from Nilo Cruz’s play
