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3 sop/mezzo/ten/bass bar/fl/ob/cl bcl/pno/vln/vla/vc/db. Duration: 60:00. Full Score.
Parts, libretto, and a piano-vocal score are available from the composer.
Download the first 21 pages.
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a chamber opera in six scenes
by Paul A. Epstein
Original libretto by Toby Olson
The story of Chihuahua is loosely based on an ‘urban legend’ published by W. Dirk Raat under the title “The Mexican Pet.” The story is of a woman from New York City who travels to Mexico, finds an emaciated Chihuahua dog in an alley, and rescues it. She smuggles it back to New York and tries to nurse it back to health. When it fails to thrive, she takes it to a veterinarian, who tells her “I'm afraid it's dying - but it's not a dog; it's a Mexican sewer rat!”
In his analysis of the meaning of the legend, W. Dirk Raat writes the following: “It is appropriate that a legend that expresses a typical North American national and racial bias against Mexico as an unsanitary place would adopt the symbol of the hairless Mexican Chihuahua for its central stereotype.” The libretto, set in a time when American oil interests were dominant in Mexico, turns the tale on its head, resurrecting the chihuahua as a proud symbol of a new independent Mexico, as well as a catalyst for the identity crises of each of the other characters. Connie, who has been taken to America as a child bride, rediscovers her Mexican identity as Consuela. Her oil baron husband resolves to turn from exploitation to humanitarian pursuits. Even the veterinarian is determined to give up his lucrative practice in order to care for the less fortunate. The story is facilitated by a chorus of two Mexican women, who bring the news, comment on the action, and prophesy.
