Aaron Copland loved Mexico. He visited there many times, staying for extended periods, and enjoyed a close personal friendship with Carlos Chávez, Mexico’s most celebrated musician. “El Salón México” was Copland’s first certifiable hit, inaugurating the “populist” period that would also yield “Billy the Kid,” “Fanfare for the Common Man,” “Lincoln Portrait,” “Rodeo,” and “Appalachian Spring.”
The work was inspired by a dance hall located in Mexico City. Copland adored the fact that there was a sign on the wall there that read: “Please don’t throw lighted cigarette butts on the floor so the ladies don’t burn their feet.”
“…In some inexplicable way,” he wrote in his autobiography, “while milling about in those crowded halls, one really felt a live contact with the Mexican people – the atomic sense one sometimes gets in far-off places, of suddenly knowing the essence of a people – their humanity, their separate shyness, their dignity and unique charm.”
Happily, the work was embraced by the Mexican public and was a sensation when it was given its debut in Mexico City, with Chávez on the podium, in 1937.
But it took Ricardo Montalban to turn it into a piano concerto, in “Fiesta” (1947)!
Only Hollywood could cook up the dilemma of having Montalban caught between his desire to become a composer, on the one hand, and to fulfill his father’s expectation of his becoming a bullfighter. It’s as if some producer remembered seeing “The Jazz Singer” and thought he’d transplant it south of the border.
But it gets even better: as things are brought to a head, Montalban’s twin sister – played by Esther Williams! – impersonates him in the ring. The Hollywood dream factory was working overtime on this one. At least it was shot on location in Puebla.
“Fiesta” was Montalban’s first Hollywood film. He would reteam with Williams in “On an Island with You” (1948) and “Neptune’s Daughter” (1949).
Totally implausible and kitschy as hell, but even in this bastardized version, the music is hard to resist. Copland generally avoided overt commercialization of his oeuvres, especially when, as here, the music is chopped up and reorchestrated. But in this instance, he took the money and ran. After all, $15,000 was $15,000 – even more so in 1947!
The arrangement is by Copland’s old friend Johnny Green. André Previn recorded the piano solo. The choreography in the film was provided by Eugene Loring, who created Copland’s ballet “Billy the Kid.”
“El Salón México” was an international smash, the first of the composer’s so-called populist works.
Be sure to watch the entire clip to see Mr. Roarke meet Batman’s Alfred, Alan Napier!
Copland conducts the piece as written
Gustavo Dudamel conducts Chávez’s “Sinfonia India”
