Last evening in the city and we have tickets for the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. To be frank we really bought the tickets because we were advised that it was the only way to see the wonderful auditorium of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in action, moreover with ballet, the language it was performed in was irrelevant.
As the show started at 8 o'clock, we headed back to the Sanborn restaurant (you remember, the merchant's house covered in the blue tiles) which was only a stone's throw away from the theatre.
You can see the audience gathering outside the entrance as we crossed the road to join them. It turns out that the title is something of a misnomer as the show is a series of song and dance numbers reflecting the history and regional traditions of the country from pre Hispanic times to the present day. It is not a ballet as we would understand it. To give you the full flavour of the show let me quote from one of the thousands of reviews that appear on the TripAdvisor website.
"WOW would be the first word! Exhilarating, Entrancing, Exciting, Enthralling, Exhuberant, and Entertaining would be only a few of the E words one could use for this incredibly talented group of Entertainers! ....the dancers, the musicians, the costumes, the choreography, the music, the colours, the history told, and, of course the stunning Bellas Artes, this is a MUST do. If you do not do anything else during your stay in beautiful Mexico City, take in a performance. Every Wednesday and Sunday.........Enjoy!"
Not quite my literary style, but the sentiments are spot on. I agree with every word. Now, at a thousand words a go, some pictures. Here we are looking at the proscenium arch and safety curtain. Note the stained glass in the proscenium arch which depicts scenes from the national history and the the stunning colours in the glass of the safety curtain. This view also lets you see what it's like sitting "in the gods". You can see how elevated the view is if you look down into the boxes.
This is the huge chandelier that is part of the ceiling rather than suspended from it. Shades of Tiffany if you will forgive the pun.
This shot was taken with a zoom in order to give some details to the characters on stage. The huge puppet was played by a person on stilts and stood at least 15 feet tall. The musicians are standing stage left.
There are 45 male dancers on stage in the picture below. There's an equal number of women and if you include the musicians there must be at least 120 front of stage performers in the show.
The still camera can still betray those little gaps in synchronicity.
The whole theatre was put to good use. Here you can see the chorus using the boxes.
All in all a really entertaining and enjoyable show .
We now have one day left in Mexico City before we fly back to the UK this evening. There is one more must do visit to make and that is Mexico's Machu Picchu equivalent. I am speaking of Teotihuacan. You can buy a tailor made day tour at considerable expense or take one of the public buses marked Pyramids for not a lot. We were tipped off that hiring a taxi for the day was the ideal compromise, being not too pricey but giving us complete flexibility and the trip to the airport built in. So we made our way to Teotihuacan pronounced Teo ti wakan. Try it, four syllables, Teo ti wak an. Got it? Well done. Most visitors blithely assume the city is Aztec in origin, but it is much older and built by an entirely different civilization.
It is situated about 45km north west of modern Mexico City. Founded around 100 BCE with major monuments being continuously constructed until 250 CE. At its zenith in the first half of the first millennium CE it was the largest city in the pre Columbian Americas and at least the 6th largest city in the world at the time. It was systematically sacked and burned around 550 CE but may have survived until sometime between the C7th and C8th CE.
What you can see below is the most prominent structure which is called the Pyramid of the Sun.
Most visitors try to ascend this, no mean feat with temperatures in the mid 30s Celcius. Some however make it a group thing, witness the group in white. We haven't a clue what the glue of this group was, but they were certainly creating an event.
This is a view from the middle of the Avenue of the Dead looking towards the Pyramid of the Moon. These names were given by the Aztecs who discovered the ruins hundreds of years after they had been abandoned. Hence the names are neither in historical context or descriptive of function. For example they mistook the buildings lining the road as tombs, hence the name. In fact they were dwellings for many multiethnic people, possibly the first examples of apartment buildings. Notice too how the shape of the pyramid echoes the surrounding topography. The same is the case in all the very large structures. Not only are we standing in the middle of a World Heritage Site but also in the world's first grid plan city which had a population of between 150 and 250 thousand people.
This is the view from half way up the Pyramid of the Sun looking back towards the Avenue of the Dead and some of the buildings along it. Not only were the exteriors coloured a deep red but many interiors retain original brightly coloured murals.
Here we have reached the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. Out of shot to the left is the Pyramid of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. More Aztec fanciful nomenclature.
There don't appear ever to have been any defensive fortifications, suggesting the lack of any external threat and supporting the theory of cooperative multiethnic living.
Finally a zoom photograph of the Pyramid of the Moon from the top of the aforementioned Sun. Why this large sophisticated community ceased to exist after 900 years is an enigma. But the destruction and burning of the the largest buildings owned by the ruling and wealthy class points to internal dissent. This may have been brought about by famine caused by climate change as a result of volcanic activity. Maybe there is an important message here for us all today.
Talking of climate, here is one of the bald Mexican dogs that have evolved their own way of coping with the heat. An important message to us senior citizens, go bald and sleep.
Finally I would like to give you some impression of suburban Mexico City. It is a real sprawl of low rise concrete block buildings. They are crudely constructed and reek of poverty but the use of bright emulsion paint enlivens the vista and lifts the spirits.
So goodbye Mexico, we would love to come back and see some more of your wonders. You have left us with fine memories but you have titillated us for more.
As the show started at 8 o'clock, we headed back to the Sanborn restaurant (you remember, the merchant's house covered in the blue tiles) which was only a stone's throw away from the theatre.
You can see the audience gathering outside the entrance as we crossed the road to join them. It turns out that the title is something of a misnomer as the show is a series of song and dance numbers reflecting the history and regional traditions of the country from pre Hispanic times to the present day. It is not a ballet as we would understand it. To give you the full flavour of the show let me quote from one of the thousands of reviews that appear on the TripAdvisor website.
"WOW would be the first word! Exhilarating, Entrancing, Exciting, Enthralling, Exhuberant, and Entertaining would be only a few of the E words one could use for this incredibly talented group of Entertainers! ....the dancers, the musicians, the costumes, the choreography, the music, the colours, the history told, and, of course the stunning Bellas Artes, this is a MUST do. If you do not do anything else during your stay in beautiful Mexico City, take in a performance. Every Wednesday and Sunday.........Enjoy!"
Not quite my literary style, but the sentiments are spot on. I agree with every word. Now, at a thousand words a go, some pictures. Here we are looking at the proscenium arch and safety curtain. Note the stained glass in the proscenium arch which depicts scenes from the national history and the the stunning colours in the glass of the safety curtain. This view also lets you see what it's like sitting "in the gods". You can see how elevated the view is if you look down into the boxes.
This is the huge chandelier that is part of the ceiling rather than suspended from it. Shades of Tiffany if you will forgive the pun.
This shot was taken with a zoom in order to give some details to the characters on stage. The huge puppet was played by a person on stilts and stood at least 15 feet tall. The musicians are standing stage left.
There are 45 male dancers on stage in the picture below. There's an equal number of women and if you include the musicians there must be at least 120 front of stage performers in the show.
The still camera can still betray those little gaps in synchronicity.
The whole theatre was put to good use. Here you can see the chorus using the boxes.
All in all a really entertaining and enjoyable show .
We now have one day left in Mexico City before we fly back to the UK this evening. There is one more must do visit to make and that is Mexico's Machu Picchu equivalent. I am speaking of Teotihuacan. You can buy a tailor made day tour at considerable expense or take one of the public buses marked Pyramids for not a lot. We were tipped off that hiring a taxi for the day was the ideal compromise, being not too pricey but giving us complete flexibility and the trip to the airport built in. So we made our way to Teotihuacan pronounced Teo ti wakan. Try it, four syllables, Teo ti wak an. Got it? Well done. Most visitors blithely assume the city is Aztec in origin, but it is much older and built by an entirely different civilization.
It is situated about 45km north west of modern Mexico City. Founded around 100 BCE with major monuments being continuously constructed until 250 CE. At its zenith in the first half of the first millennium CE it was the largest city in the pre Columbian Americas and at least the 6th largest city in the world at the time. It was systematically sacked and burned around 550 CE but may have survived until sometime between the C7th and C8th CE.
What you can see below is the most prominent structure which is called the Pyramid of the Sun.
Most visitors try to ascend this, no mean feat with temperatures in the mid 30s Celcius. Some however make it a group thing, witness the group in white. We haven't a clue what the glue of this group was, but they were certainly creating an event.
This is a view from the middle of the Avenue of the Dead looking towards the Pyramid of the Moon. These names were given by the Aztecs who discovered the ruins hundreds of years after they had been abandoned. Hence the names are neither in historical context or descriptive of function. For example they mistook the buildings lining the road as tombs, hence the name. In fact they were dwellings for many multiethnic people, possibly the first examples of apartment buildings. Notice too how the shape of the pyramid echoes the surrounding topography. The same is the case in all the very large structures. Not only are we standing in the middle of a World Heritage Site but also in the world's first grid plan city which had a population of between 150 and 250 thousand people.
This is the view from half way up the Pyramid of the Sun looking back towards the Avenue of the Dead and some of the buildings along it. Not only were the exteriors coloured a deep red but many interiors retain original brightly coloured murals.
Here we have reached the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. Out of shot to the left is the Pyramid of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. More Aztec fanciful nomenclature.
There don't appear ever to have been any defensive fortifications, suggesting the lack of any external threat and supporting the theory of cooperative multiethnic living.
Finally a zoom photograph of the Pyramid of the Moon from the top of the aforementioned Sun. Why this large sophisticated community ceased to exist after 900 years is an enigma. But the destruction and burning of the the largest buildings owned by the ruling and wealthy class points to internal dissent. This may have been brought about by famine caused by climate change as a result of volcanic activity. Maybe there is an important message here for us all today.
Talking of climate, here is one of the bald Mexican dogs that have evolved their own way of coping with the heat. An important message to us senior citizens, go bald and sleep.
Finally I would like to give you some impression of suburban Mexico City. It is a real sprawl of low rise concrete block buildings. They are crudely constructed and reek of poverty but the use of bright emulsion paint enlivens the vista and lifts the spirits.
So goodbye Mexico, we would love to come back and see some more of your wonders. You have left us with fine memories but you have titillated us for more.
