How Can It Be? (c) 2009 Mattroi Berger
The first true number in Nilo Cruz’s Lorca in a Green Dress (UC Irvine, 2009), How Can It Be is the song in the score with the loosest ties to cante hondo and Flamenco.
I was given some amount of free reign on this song - I chose to highlight the storytelling aspects of the lyrics and the folksy nature I felt reading lines that spoke to communism, death and war. Thus we bounce along gently to the march of a 60s protest tune, until the chorus, when slashes of Flamenco hand claps cut through the song’s relaxed nature, rigid, like gunshots. As the first song in the show, I felt a gentle, flowing tempo would serve the audience’s entrance to the odd dreamworld of the play.
Backing Vocals: Melissa Lusk
Lyrics by Lorca, from Nilo Cruz’s play.
