Opera honors María Sabina, oaxacan healer
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In Mexico City, the Cenart presented Invocación operística a la sabia de los hongos, an opera created by Marcela and Jesusa Rodríguez honoring María Sabina, a legendary healer from Oaxaca, Mexico.
The production draws from Álvaro Estrada’s biography of Sabina to recreate key moments and reflections from her life. The opera immerses the audience in a dark setting, using sound, percussion, flute, violin, and cello directed by Gonzalo Gutiérrez, to evoke a journey into the underworld.
Five singers, representing mycelia, the root structure of fungi, mingle with the audience while performing nostalgic rhythms. The performance revisits Sabina’s childhood, her first experiences with hallucinogens, and her beliefs about life and escaping poverty, showing how she found meaning in fungi. Catalina Pereda led a cast of performers called the “tejedoras del micelio” (weavers of the mycelium), and the set design visually connected the performers to the audience.
The opera portrays Sabina confronting memories of death and sharing her perspective on her own wisdom, stating “I am the woman who is under the water because I am the water that speaks.” The production also depicts Sabina’s healing work, including a case where she helped a boy walk again after a fall, accepting only five pesos, liquor, and a chicken as payment.
The opera also shows Sabina’s encounters with outsiders, specifically, “rockers” who sought hallucinogenic experiences, and her disappointment with their superficiality. The performance concludes with Sabina reflecting on her impending death and the traditions surrounding it in her community, as the orchestra falls silent. Invocación operística a la sabia de los hongos ran for one weekend as part of the Del color de la sandía cycle celebrating Mexico’s Independence Day.
