Orchestral Superheroes: Composer-Conductor Juan Pablo Contreras on Merging Classical Music and Mexican Wrestling in Lucha Libre!
Juan Pablo Contreras. Credit: Greg Cahill
Classical music so often feels divorced from pop culture, but we don't need to dive too deep into the history books to see how much composers of the past embraced the cultural traditions of their homelands. Béla Bartók traveled across Hungary documenting folk songs, Gustav Mahler wove popular tunes into his First Symphony, and even Mozart composed background music for playing the popular card games of his day.
Is it possible for today's composers to once again marry concert music with aspects of popular culture? Juan Pablo Contreras thinks so.
The Mexican composer-conductor thrives on combining Western classical and Mexican folk music into a single soundscape that's all his own. And in his dazzling 2022 orchestral work Lucha Libre!, he's also incorporating one of his country's most beloved traditions: the choreographed wrestling spectacles that emerged in the 1950s, in which wrestlers act as superheroes waging battles between good and evil.
Commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Lucha Libre! transforms the stage into a live wrestling match, with six of the orchestral musicians wearing the iconic luchador masks. For Contreras, the work is not only an example of his artistic mission to bring people into the concert hall with music that feels relevant and exciting, but also a way for him to pay homage to the virtuosity of classical musicians.
"For me, classical musicians are like superheroes," Contreras says on the latest episode of the Classical Post podcast. "They do something almost impossible with their instrument. They are very gifted, and they have to do things in collaboration with other musicians so the magic happens. The same thing happens in lucha libre — everything is choreographed, so even if the teams are rivals, they have to work together to give the people a good spectacle."
In this episode, recorded just before the work's LA premiere, we talk more about the genesis of the piece, how Contreras collaborated with local communities to shape the work, and how he hopes Lucha Libre! inspires people to consider their own superhero persona. Plus, he shares how film and architecture inspire his creativity, the importance of daily meditation, and his favorite West Hollywood spot for Peruvian paella.
Stream Lucha Libre!, performed by the Orquestra Latino Mexicana — a group Contreras founded in his hometown of Guadalajara — on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen to music.
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