Dionisio in Memoriam - María Sabina

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Narrador: Fuera la nieve cae besando hojas secas por

enterrar dejando el valle azul y vago. La tierra oscura.
S, dulces pinares sin nombre, tierra ma, de mi carne
donde el tiempo se realiza con el misterio y renace a la
inseguridad del alba, la agona de la tarde.
Coro: Construir una nueva Espaa
Narrador: Y Soria ya no es tierra y va brotando de
haber sido ayer y de la nieve, clara de estar lejana y ser
memoria un leve murmullo que la va creando.
Coro: sin destruir nuestra razn de ser. Bienvenidos
vosotros los vituperados conservadores de siempre
Narrador: Como una nave surta en la eterna bonanza...
Otra vez empezar, seguir naciendo. Otra vez manantial,
no curso henchido. Otra vez eligiendo la ribera y las
flores amadas.
Coro: inconformistas del hoy que ya es maana.
Lejos queda la sed de podero. El hoy que ya es
maana.
Narrador: Que como la nieve fluye y el rbol amarillo
y seco lamido por el Duero, de paramera negra y
plateada, de pavorosos buitres ahtos de la nada, de
pinares oliendo a corazn de pan, de castillos sin nadie.
Soria pura.
Narr.: Outside the snow falls kissing the dry leaves that
have not been buried, leaving the valley blue and still. The
dark land. Yes, sweet pines without name, my land, of my
flesh where time appears as if a mystery and is reborn with
the insecurity of dawn, the agony of the afternoon.
Ch.: To build a new Spain
Narr.: And Soria no longer is a land but is breaking out
from the past and the snow.
FIN
THE END
Ch.: without destroying our reason for being.

Welcome you, the vilified conservative
Narr.: Like a ship which is navigating in an eternal
calm Begin again, keep on recreating yourself. Again
a spring, not overflowing. Again choosing the riverbank
and the loved flowers.
Ch.: the non-conformists of today, which is already
tomorrow. Far remains the thirst for power. Today is
tomorrow.
Narr.: Which is like the flowing snow and the dry,
yellow tree licked by the river Duero, with uncultivated,
barren, black and silver plains, with frightening
vultures, the creatures from nothingness, with fragrant
pines, with deserted castles. Pure Soria.
Franco, Head of the Spanish Government.
English translation: Joan and Leonardo Balada
The texts for Dionisio: In Memoriam are reproduced by kind permission

of the authors heirs, Dionisio Ridruejo de Ros, Gloria Ridruejo de Ros,
Eva Ridruejo de Ros and Fdo. Emilio Ruiz.
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Leonardo
BALADA
Mara Sabina
Dionisio: In Memoriam
Orchestra and Chorus of the Comunidad de Madrid
Jos Ramn Encinar
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Leonardo Balada (b. 1933)

Mara Sabina Dionisio: In Memoriam
Working with outstanding writers has been one of my
most rewarding professional experiences. There is
something extra dimensional in their way of seeing the
world and expressing it. That aspect of my experience is
only comparable to my experience in being associated
with painters of enormous talent. From Salvador Dal
and Alfonso Mier in the plastic arts to Camilo Jos Cela
in literature, they left a stamp in my musical thinking.
I met Cela, a Nobel Literature Prize Laureate, in
1967 in New York. When I expressed my intention of
composing a cantata with my own text, his answer was
zapatero a tus zapatos (shoemaker stick to making
shoes.) He told me he was working on a text based on
the Aztec Mexican priestess Mara Sabina, and that I
should visit him in Majorca to talk about a
collaboration. Once in his Mediterranean villa I saw that
his writing was under way, although not advanced
enough that he would not add a number of lines after an
interchange with my first wife, Monica, an Irish actress,
to whom the work is dedicated, whose extroverted ideas
and expressions he found interesting, amusing and
suited to the character he was writing about. The
premire in New York was warmly received but in
Madrid, a performance five weeks later at Teatro de la
Zarzuela was booed several times, partly owing to the
modernity of the music but mostly because of the
provocative language of the text. I had to interrupt the
performance I was conducting twice. While composing
the work, the power of the text was so extraordinary that
I felt inspired by it. I recall composing the music even
when I was travelling, in airports or hotels.
Mara Sabina was a Mexican Indian, a mushroomcult priestess who died of natural causes some years
ago. She was still alive when its character was hanged as
culmination of the work at its premire in Carnegie Hall.
Some of the text is based on Mara Sabinas incantations
and the dramatic problems she encountered with her
people, who objected to the opening of the holy rituals
to the outside world.
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Mara Sabina is in three parts. Part I starts with the

Town-crier announcing to the towns people that Mara
Sabina has been condemned to be hanged. They approve
of the sentence although they respect and admire her.
Mara Sabina states her sins and her virtues. In Part II the
old ladies of the town overcome with superstitious
fervour, applaud the sentence. Mara Sabina calls upon
her supernatural powers. The townspeople press the
Hangman to carry out the execution. In Part III the
people insist that she be hanged at once, while Mara
Sabina in a desperate effort proclaims she is pure and
innocent. The Hangman asks Mara Sabina for
forgiveness and the sentence is carried out.
This tragifona (Symphonic Tragedy) for narrator,
chorus and orchestra in its original form was finished in
1969 and had its premire in 1970 at Carnegie Hall,
sponsored by the Hispanic Society of America. Maria
Soledad Romero narrated the title part.
The cantata Dionisio: In Memoriam is a homage to
Dionisio Ridruejo, a poet and politician from Soria,
Spain. It is based on his poems and prose of ideological,
philosophical and descriptive character. It expresses his
love for his land, as well as the experiences as a
volunteer fighter with the Divisin Azul, an army sent
by the Spanish dictator Franco side by side with the
Nazi army, to Russia to fight the Bolsheviks during the
Second World War. On his return from those battles,
Ridruejo broke with Franco and his ideologies and
moved towards supporting a democratic and free Spain.
The selection of the text was made by Emilio Ruiz, a
writer also from Soria, who contributes his own writing
to complement Ridruejos text, which is spoken by a
narrator. Ruizs text is sung by the chorus. The work
does not correspond to a chronological structure of
events but is a synthesis of what happens to the poet and
what he thinks. It alternates the tense and dramatic with
the lyrical and contemplative.
The music of this cantata is in the modernistic style
I used in early compositions, like the cantatas Mara
lamos, robles de pendulantes hojas muertas. Nidos

fortificados y emplazamientos de caones.
Coro: Ay!
Narrador: Sufrimiento en los rostros. Temblorosas
bayonetas caladas. Tumbas, destrozos, escarchas.
Tanques rotos, caballos muertos. Restos de incendio,
huellas de bombas. Muchos cuerpos de hombre estn
ah. Y un gran silencio. Oro, tierra empapada de
sentimientos. Plidas estrellas y un mar que se agita en
la lucha bajo el silbido de intangibles balas.
Coro: Ay! Es el odio, como el fuego. Es la guerra, a
luchar. Slo tumbas. Temblorosas bayonetas. A su
regreso de Rusia escribi al jefe del Estado dndole a
entender su desafeccin por la causa.
Narrador: Blanco sueo, blanco silencio y soledad
radiante. Muere el hombre de accin. Mientras Dios en
su gloria convoca los espacios y rene las horas. Ya
habr cigeas al sol mirando la tarde roja entre
Moncayo y Urbin. Y Soria ya no es tierra y va brotando
de haber sido ayer y de la nieve, clara de estar lejana y
ser memoria. Yo soy el hombre libre que camina... y que
ora, como una lluvia que todo cielo ignora.
Oh, carpinteros, albailes y panaderos y trilladores,
boteros, herreros, carreros, molineros y aserradores. Oh
montaas y cordilleras, vegas, dehesas, lagos, bosques,
ros caudales, altas murallas, puentes, castillos, plazas,
torres, calles de vasto casero, nobles escudos y altivos
porches.Quin os puso bajo colinas diminutas y quin
esconde soto por selva, sed por agua la creacin que
tuvo el hombre?Quin hace aldea lo que fue mundo y
primoroso lo que fue enorme? Pero quin es este que
mide y cuenta? Soy acaso... YO, o es otro SER superior
a todos? Hasta t me engaaste, espritu del hombre, la
piedra labrando su reposo... el tejido del honor y de
justicia.
Coro: Engaado por los hombres, al caer la tarde
cuando pasa el Arcngel y la oracin lo sigue, nace el
hombre poltico de deber. La sangre que pasa por sus
venas tan confiada y pura como recin nacida. Ha
llegado el da de levantar la losa que sepulta al hombre,
a Espaa entera.
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with dead leaves. Fortified nests and cannons.

Ch.: Ay!
Narr.: Suffering faces. Trembling bayonets. Graves,
destruction, frost. Broken tanks, dead horses. Remains
of fires and bombs. There are many bodies. And a great
silence. Gold, earth soaked with emotions. Pale stars
and a sea that shakes under the whistle of bullets.
Ch.: Ay! That hate is like fire. It is the war, fight. Only
graves. Trembling bayonets. On returning from Russia
he wrote to the jefe del Estado1 letting him know his
discontent with the cause.
Narr.: White dream, white silence and shining solitude.
The man of action dies. While God in his glory
assembles the spaces and the hours. The storks already
are under the sun between Moncayo and Urbion
looking at the red afternoon. And Soria no longer is a
land but it is breaking out from the past and the snow. I
am the free man who walks and prays, like a rain that
heaven ignores.
Oh, carpenters, bricklayers, bakers and threshers,
kegmakers, ironmakers, horsecart drivers, millers, and
sawmill operators. Oh mountains and ranges, valleys,
fields, lakes, forests, rivers with water, high walls,
bridges, castles, plazas, towers, streets of many houses,
noble coats of arms, and imposing porticos. Who put you
at the foot of small hills and who hid bushes instead of
a forest, and thirst instead of water the creation made
by man? Who makes a village from the world and an
exquisite small thing from something enormous? But
who is this one, who measures and counts? Maybe it is I
or is there another BEING superior to us all? Even you
deceived me, spirit of man, the stone carving its resting
place the fabric of honor and justice.
Ch.: Deceived by man, when the afternoon disappears,
when the archangel passes, followed by the prayer, the
political man is born by obligation. The blood that
goes through his veins as confident and pure as if he
had just been created. It is time to lift up the stone that
buries man and all of Spain.
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las arrugas de la nuca

Soy una mujer que no tiene dientes
Soy una mujer con dos filas de dientes
Soy una mujer con tres filas de dientes
Soy una mujer a la que le nacen dientes en el paladar
Soy una mujer que come tierra
Soy una mujer que se cura las llagas con tierra
Soy una mujer que no salta con alegra por encima
de los tejados
Soy una mujer sin pezones
Soy una mujer con seis tetas como las perras
Soy una mujer a la que enterraron viva
Soy una mujer que goz al ser enterrada viva
Soy una mujer que bebe el semen del padre
en la flor de la mandrgora
Soy una mujer que fuma yerbas aromticas en una
pipa hecha de vrtebras de mrtir desangrado
Soy una mujer casi ciega
Soy una mujer casi sorda
Soy una mujer casi muda y paraltica
Soy una mujer que ronda los urinarios y los desmontes
Soy una mujer a la que canta el vientre
Soy una mujer que ignora el pecado
Soy una mujer que se desnuda y viste con libertad
Soy una mujer que re sin motivo
Soy una mujer fiel
Soy una mujer respetuosa
Soy una mujer indecente
Soy una mujer que cra ranas y culebras de agua
en el lavabo
Soy una mujer envuelta en un sudario de colores
Soy una mujer con las uas quebradizas
Soy una mujer que se est quedando sin uas
Soy una mujer que ya ni recuerda cuando perdi
las uas
Soy una mujer que no sabe solfeo
Soy una mujer que alimenta pulgas por caridad
Soy una mujer de aliento ftido
Soy una mujer goda y poco sana
Soy una mujer a la que cosieron el sexo y el ano
Soy una mujer a la que nadie mira de frente
Soy una mujer que se cobija en donde puede,
por ejemplo bajo de los puentes o en la cama de
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the wrinkles of her neck

I am a woman who has no teeth
I am a woman with two rows of teeth
I am a woman with three rows of teeth
I am a woman who has teeth growing in her palate
I am a woman who eats dirt
I am a woman who cures her wounds with dirt
I am a woman who does not jump with joy
over the rooftops
I am a woman without nipples
I am a woman with six teats like bitches
I am a woman who was buried alive
I am a woman who enjoyed being buried alive
I am a woman who drinks her fathers semen
in the flower of the mandrake
I am a woman who smokes aromatic herbs in a
pipe made of vertebrae from a blood-drained martyr
I am a woman who is almost blind
I am a woman who is almost deaf
I am a woman who is almost dumb and paralyzed
I am a woman who hovers around urinals and rubble
I am a woman whose belly sings
I am a woman who ignores sin
I am a woman who undresses and dresses with freedom
I am a woman who laughs for no reason at all
I am a woman who is faithful
I am a woman who is respectful
I am a woman who is indecent
I am a woman who grows frogs and water snakes
in the sink
I am a woman wrapped in a multicolored shroud
I am a woman with brittle nails
I am a woman who is losing her nails
I am a woman who cannot remember when she lost
her nails
I am a woman who doesnt know solfege
I am a woman who feeds fleas out of charity
I am a woman with fetid breath
I am a woman who is fat and unhealthy
I am a woman whose vagina and anus were sewn up
I am a woman whom no one looks in the eye
I am a woman who seeks shelter where she can,
for example, under bridges or in the beds of
10
los leprosos
Soy una mujer que ama el fuego
Soy una mujer que lleva el fuego de un lado para otro
Soy una mujer incapaz de escupir fuego
the lepers
I am a woman who loves fire
I am a woman who carries fire from one place to another
I am a woman incapable of spitting fire
2 Parte II
Part II
Coro
Las viejecitas impedidas quieren ahorcar a
Mara Sabina
Las viejecitas impedidas quieren ver el gesto que
pone el verdugo mientras abraza por el aire a
Mara Sabina
Las viejecitas impedidas no podrn colgarse de los
pies de Mara Sabina
Las viejecitas impedidas quieren oler el ltimo
sudor de Mara Sabina
Chorus
All the crippled and sick old bitches want now
to hang our Maria Sabina
to see the expression of the hangman, while
he embraces her through the air, our Maria Sabina
All the crippled and sick old bitches wont be
able to hang from the feet of Maria Sabina
All the crippled and sick old bitches want now to
smell the last droplet of sweat of Maria Sabina
Mara Sabina
Oye luna
Oye mujer cruz del sur
Oye mujer estrella de los navegantes
Oye cirio del muerto
Oye coneja recin parida
Oye el sol y las nubes
Oye mujer herida de muerte
Oye mujer sin alma
Oye mujer sin cuerpo
Oye mujer sin amor
Oye mujer
Oye caracol de la fuente
Oye mosca del verano
Oye lucero de la maana
Oye gorgojo de los atades
Oye Andrmaca
Oye agua de la lluvia
Oye da luminoso
Oye negra boca del perro
Oye viuda salaz y reconfortada
Oye viuda salaz y hermosa
Oye Mara Estuardo
Oye hospiciano de los latigazos
Oye Juan de Arco
Maria Sabina
Listen moon
Listen woman, Southern Cross
Listen woman, star of sailors
Listen candle of the dead
Listen newborn rabbit
Listen sun and clouds
Listen woman wounded unto death
Listen woman without a soul
Listen woman without a body
Listen woman without love
Listen woman
Listen snail in the fountain
Listen summer fly
Listen morning star
Listen graveyard termite
Listen Andromache
Listen rain water
Listen bright day
Listen dogs black mouth
Listen lustful and comforted widow
Listen lustful and beautiful woman
Listen Mary Stuart
Listen pauper of the whippings
Listen Joan of Arc
11
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NAXOS
NAXOS
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Playing Time
Leonardo
68:52
BALADA
(b. 1933)
Mara Sabina (1969)
38:09 Dionisio: In Memoriam (2001) 30:43
I: En la serrana de Oaxaca 1 7:56

2 Part II: Las viejecitas impedidas
quieren ahorcar a Mara Sabina 2 16:33
3 Part III: Pedimos que el verdugo
ahorque a Mara Sabina 3
13:40
1 Part
I: Hambre, Gloria, Vida 4

5 Part II: Guerra, guerra,
la guerra 5
4 Part
12:43
18:00
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Spanish sung texts and English translations included

Recorded at the Rehearsal Hall of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Comunidad de Madrid,
Teatro Isabel Clara Eugenia, Spain, from 27th to 30th June, 2006 (tracks 1-3),
and from 29th November to 1st December, 2006, and 23rd to 25th May, 2007 (tracks 4 and 5)
Producer: Javier Zuazu Engineers: Miguel ngel Barcos and Miguel Alonso
Editor: Miguel Alonso Booklet notes: Leonardo Balada
Publishers: G. Schirmer, Inc. (tracks 1-3); Beteca Music (tracks 4 and 5)
Cover image: Mara Sabina (2006) by Aira Balada (used by kind permission)
& 2008
Naxos Rights International Ltd.

Jos Ramn Encinar
Booklet notes in English Comentarios en espaol

Disc made in Canada. Printed and assembled in USA.
Susi Snchez, Narrator (Mara Sabina) 1-3

ngel Siz, Narrator (The Town Crier/Constable) 1, 3
Fernando Tejedor, Narrator (Executioner) 3 Carlos Hiplito, Narrator 4, 5
BALADA: Mara Sabina Dionisio: In Memoriam
DDD
www.naxos.com
The Barcelona-born composer Leonardo Balada is credited with pioneering a blending of ethnic
music with avant-garde techniques. The symphonic tragedy Mara Sabina, one of Baladas bestknown works, tells the extraordinary story of Sabina, a Mexican Indian mushroom-cult priestess
who meets fierce resistance from her people when endeavouring to open the holy rituals to the
outside world. Some of the text in Baladas work is based on her incantations, of which the
composer has written, While composing the work, the power of the text was so extraordinary that
I felt inspired by it. I recall composing the music even when I was travelling, in airports or hotels.
The cantata Dionisio: In Memoriam is a homage to Dionisio Ridruejo, a poet and politician from
Soria, Spain, on whose ideological, philosophical and descriptive writings the work is based.
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Emborrachad al sepulturero y rompedle en mil pedazos

el azadn!
Lets get him drunk. Get the gravedigger drunk and

break up his hoe into a thousand pieces
Mara Sabina
El corazn de Cristo
El corazn de la Madre de Cristo
Soy conocida en el cielo
Dios me conoce
Soy una mujer limpia
El pjaro me limpia
El libro me limpia
El agua me limpia
El aire me limpia
La flor me limpia
Dios me conoce
El corazn de Cristo
Maria Sabina
The Sacred Heart of Christ
The heart of the Mother of Christ
The heavens know me
God knows me
I am cleansed woman
The bird cleanses me
The book cleanses me
The water cleanses me
The air cleanses me
The flower cleanses me
The heavens know me
God knows me
Coro
Desatad al verdugo!
Dad al verdugo un vaso de aguardiente!
Guardad un respetuoso silencio cuando el verdugo
cierre los ojos!
!Viva el verdugo!
Chorus
Take off the Hangmans blindfold
Offer the Hangman a glass of good tequila
You must hold silence, respectful silence now when
the Hangman closes both his eyes
Long live the Hangman
Alguacil
Ah la tenis verdugo
Matadla ya
Nadie os ha de pedir cuentas de vuestra accin
Constable
There you have her Hangman
Kill her now
No one will ask you to account for your deed
Verdugo
Perdonadme Mara Sabina
Es slo un momento
Executioner
Forgive me, Maria Sabina
It will take one moment
Coro
Mara Sabina Mara Sabina
Chorus
Maria Sabina Maria Sabina
FIN
THE END

Established in 1984 and 1987 respectively, through the initiative of the Cultural Council,
the Orchestra and Chorus of the Comunidad de Madrid have enjoyed considerable
success in various musical centres in Spain, doing much to promote music, until June
2000 under the direction of Miguel Groba, and continuing its work under the patronage of
the Madrid Arts Council. The orchestra and chorus have participated in important
musical festivals and events throughout Spain, appearing under the direction of the most
distinguished conductors and with leading soloists. There have been recordings for
national radio and television as well as for major record companies, including the opera
Merlin by Albniz for Decca. Since January 1998 the orchestra has served as the resident orchestra of the Teatro de La
Zarzuela, where in 2000 it performed Debussys Le martyre de Saint Sbastien under Lorin Maazel. Since September
2000 Jordi Casas Bayer has served as chorus-master and Jos Ramn Encinar as principal conductor.
Flix Redondo
Assistant director of the Comunidad de Madrid Chorus and conductor of the Childrens
Choir, Flix Redondo was born in Villarubia de los Ojos, Ciudad Real, and studied at the
Madrid Conservatory. His long choral experience has seen him as conductor of the Ciudad
Real Xtar Chamber Chorus, the Coral Allegro, the Chorus of the Madrid Pharmaceutical
College, Chorus and Escolona Aldovea and Abada Chamber Chorus, with which he made a
recording of Gregorian chant and liturgical polyphony as part of the ABC Treasures of
Spanish Music. He has worked with various professional groups, conducting concerts and
operas, and has collaborated in the preparation of concerts of works by contemporary
composers, together with distinguished conductors and soloists.
Jos Ramn Encinar

Born in Madrid in 1954, Jos Ramn Encinar has conducted practically all Spains major
orchestras, and orchestras abroad throughout Europe and in Central and South America. He has a
strong interest in twentieth-century music, and has conducted rare and standard repertoire in
Spain and abroad. He acted as composition aide to Franco Donatoni in international masterclasses held at the Accademia Chigiana from 1976 to 1982, and since 1972 has directed the Koan
Group, an ensemble for the performance of twentieth-century music. From 1982 to 1984 he was
resident conductor and artistic director of the Gran Canaria Philharmonic, and since 1985 has
been a Spanish Committee Member of the International Society for Contemporary Music. His
many prizes include the 1982 Diario 16 Icarus (caro) Prize, the Ministry of Culture First Prize
for Polyphonic Composition in 1981, and the 1978 C.E.C.A. First Prize for Chamber Music Composition. In 1998 he
received the Spanish Ministry of Cultures National Music Prize. Since 1994 he has been a Corresponding Member
of the Granada Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1998 he became Principal Associate Conductor of the Segovia
Summer Music Festival and from 1998 Principal Guest Conductor of the Proyecto Gerhard Chamber Ensemble. In
the 1999/2000 season he was appointed resident conductor of the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, and since
September 2000 has been the resident conductor of the Comunidad de Madrid Orchestra and Chorus.
Music and Words by Leonardo Balada and Camilo Jos Cela

1972 (Renewed 1999) COLGEMS-EMI MUSIC INC.
All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Used By Permission.
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Leonardo Balada (nacido 1933)

Colaborar con grandes escritores ha sido una de las
experiencias ms satisfactorias de mi carrera profesional
pues hay algo fuera de serie en su manera de ver el
mundo. Este aspecto de mis experiencias artsticas slo
puede compararse con mis experiencias con grandes
pintores. Colaborar con Salvador Dal y Alfonso Mier y
el novelista Camilo Jos Cela se ha hecho sentir en mi
manera de pensar musical.
Conoc a Cela - Premio Nbel de Literatura - en
1967 en Nueva York. Cuando le expres mi intencin de
componer una cantata con mi propio texto su respuesta
fue zapatero a tus zapatos. Me dijo que estaba
trabajando en un poema basado en la hechicera azteca
Mara Sabina y que le visitara en Mallorca para hablar
de una colaboracin en el proyecto. Una vez en su villa
mediterrnea vi que su texto estaba ya avanzado, pero
no lo suficiente como para que no pudiera incluir en sus
escritos frases y expresiones que mi primera esposa Mnica, actriz irlandesa de extrovertidas ideas y
expresiones y a quien la obra est dedicada - profiriera
durante la visita.
Esta tragifona refleja con precisin la dualidad en
la esencia de la obra: su teatralidad al modo de tragedia
griega (tragi) y su aspecto sinfnico-musical
(fona). No hay solistas vocales, solo actores. Los
coros declaman o cantan espordicamente de forma
lrico-dramtica.
Mara Sabina, la famosa hechicera india del culto de
los hongos alucingenos de Oaxaca (Mjico) falleci no
hace muchos aos de causas naturales. Sin embargo no
es as en la tragifona. En el Pregn el Pregonero
anuncia al pueblo que Mara Sabina ha sido condenada a
la horca por brujera y nadie ni nada podr salvarla. En
la Primera Melopea el pueblo aprueba la sentencia
contra Mara Sabina, aunque la respeta y admira. Mara
Sabina anuncia sus virtudes y sus pecados. En la
Segunda Melopea la viejas del pueblo aplauden la
sentencia contra Mara Sabina presas de su fervor
supersticioso. Mara Sabina invoca la naturaleza y la
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muerte y proclama sus poderes sobrenaturales. El

Pueblo apremia al verdugo a que cumpla la misin que
se le encomend de darle muerte. En la Tercera
Melopea el Pueblo reclama que se cumpla la sentencia y
Mara Sabina, en un esfuerzo desesperado, se declara
pura y limpia de toda culpa. El pueblo pide que su
inevitable agona sea corta y Mara Sabina vuelve a
salmodiar sus virtudes y sus pecados. El Verdugo pide
perdn a Maria Sabina y la sentencia se cumple. Mara
Sabina tuvo su estreno en el Carnegie Hall de Nueva
York en Abril de 1970 en su versin original, la cual se
interpret cinco semanas despus en el Teatro de la
Zarzuela de Madrid. Durante esta presentacin la obra
fue recibida con gran protesta por el pblico contrario,
en parte, a la modernidad de la msica pero sobretodo
ofendido por el texto. Dirigiendo los coros y orquesta de
la TV Espaola, me vi obligado a interrumpir el
concierto en dos ocasiones.
La cantata Dionisio: In Memoriam es un homenaje
a Dionisio Ridruejo el poeta y poltico de Soria.
Basndose en sus escritos poticos y su prosa de
carcter ideolgico, filosfico o descriptivo, expresa
tanto su amor por las tierras de Soria como el drama de
las duras jornadas de combatiente en el frente de Rusia
como partcipe en la Divisin Azul. Este era un ejrcito
de voluntarios espaoles enviado por Franco para
combatir al lado de los nazis contra los bolcheviques,
durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Al regreso de esas
campaas blicas Ridruejo rompe con Franco y sus
ideologas y se tornan ahora en pro de una visin
democrtica para Espaa. La seleccin de esos textos se
debe al escritor soriano Emilio Ruiz, quien a su vez
aporta sus propios escritos en forma de comentarios
para complementar. Los textos de Ridruejo son
declamados exclusivamente por el Narrador mientras
que los de Ruiz los canta el coro mixto. El desarrollo de
la obra no responde a una estructura cronolgica de
eventos, sino ms bien a una interpretacin de sntesis
de lo que ocurre, se describe y se piensa. La obra alterna
Sabis que soy una mujer que os escupe a la cara

Sabis que soy una mujer que mea con ruidoso
entusiasmo
Sabis que soy una mujer que alimenta ancianos
con su leche
Sabis que soy una mujer que canta y toca la campana
Sabis que soy una mujer que canta y toca
el violn
Sabis que soy una mujer que vomita de asco sobre
vuestras cabezas
You know that I am a woman who spits in your faces

You know that I am a woman who pees with noisy
enthusiasm
You know that I am a woman who feeds the old men
with her milk
You know that I am a woman who sings and rings the bell
You know that I am a woman who sings and plays
the violin
You know that I am a woman who vomits with disgust
over your heads
Coro
Disparad cohetes para que su estruendo no
permita or las palabras de Mara Sabina
Pegad a vuestros hijos para que su llanto no
Chorus
Set off firecrackers so that the horrid noise will protect
our ears from the evil words of Maria Sabina
Beat all your smallest children so that their loud crying
will protect our ears from the evil words of
Maria Sabina
Mara Sabina
El corazn de Nuestro Seor Jesucristo
El corazn de su Santsima Madre
Me conocen los santos del cielo y los ngeles
Dios me conoce
Soy una mujer sin sangre
El pjaro me roba la sangre
El libro abierto me roba la sangre
El agua me roba la sangre
El aire me roba la sangre
La flor me roba la sangre
Dios me conoce
El corazn de la Santsima Madre de Cristo
Maria Sabina
The heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The heart of his Most Blessed Mother
The saints in the heaven and the angels know me
God knows me
I am a woman without blood
The bird steals my blood
The open book steals my blood
The water steals my blood
The air steals my blood
The flower steals my blood
The saints in heaven and the angels know me
God knows me
The heart of the Most Blessed Mother of Christ
Coro
Ay!, Ay!
Atended a la lectura de la sentencia por el alguacil!
Chorus
Ay!, Ay!
Listen with care to the reading of the harsh sentence by
the Sheriff there
Miss not one small detail of the fine and careful
work of the Hangman
Raise up all your children, raise them high above your
heads so that they remember this very moment for
all the rest of their lives
No perdis detalle del esmerado oficio del verdugo!

Levantad a los nios sobre vuestras cabezas para que
recuerden este instante durante toda la vida!
15
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Page 14
lo dramtico con lo lrico y contemplativo.

La msica de esta cantata est compuesta en el
estilo modernista que caracteriza mis composiciones y
en este sentido tiene cierto parecido a Mara Sabina,
No-res y Torquemada todas cantatas de carcter
abstracto-dramtico. Pero adems, y dentro de esta
modernidad, se visualiza la existencia de motivos
musicales que identifican a realidades ideolgicas o
folclricas. Esto hace que Dionisio: In Memoriam se
acerque tambin a mis peras Cristbal Coln y Zapata
en las que las abstracciones musicales se complementan
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Chorus
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Read us the sentence now, you Sheriff
Get ready to swing your rope through the air
now, you Hangman
Wash out your mouth well now with rose water
and cloves, you child
Dont prepare the tomb for her, you there
gravedigger, and drive away all the birds here
and all of the worms because the flesh of
Maria Sabina belongs to all men
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Mara Sabina
Sabis que amo el fuego
Sabis que llevo el fuego de un lado para otro
Sabis que escupo fuego si quiero hacerlo
Sabis que soy una mujer que se lava la cara con la
sangre de los mozos
sangre de los muertos
Maria Sabina
You know that I love fire
You know I carry fire from one place to another
You know I spit fire if I wish to do so
You know that I am a woman who washes her
face with the blood of young men
face with the blood of the dead
Leonardo Balada
Coro
S, S, sabemos
Chorus
Yes, yes, we do know
Mara Sabina
Sabis que soy una mujer que se da baos de
asiento con la sangre del len
Maria Sabina
You know that I am a women who takes sitz
baths in the blood of the lion
Coro
S, S, sabemos
Chorus
Mara Sabina
Sabis que soy una mujer que se convierte en humo
Sabis que soy una mujer que tiene el corazn de aire
Sabis que soy una mujer que vuela como el vilano
Sabis que soy una mujer que flota igual que el corcho
Sabis que soy una mujer que an puede parir
Sabis que soy una mujer a la que vais a quitar la vida
Sabis que soy una mujer no ms viciosa que las
otras mujeres
Sabis que soy una mujer entera y que
no llora
Maria Sabina
You know that I am a woman who turns herself into smoke
You know that I am a woman whose heart is made of air
You know that I am a woman who flies like a bird
You know that I am a woman who floats like a cork
You know that I am a woman who can still give birth
You know that I am a woman whom you are going to kill
You know that I am a woman no more licentious
than other women
You know that I am a woman who is whole and does
not cry
Coro
Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay!
Lee ya la sentencia alguacil!
Disponte a columpiarte en el aire verdugo!
Lvate bien la boca con agua de rosas nio!
No prepares la fosa sepulturero y ahuyenta los
pjaros y los gusanos que la carne de Mara
Sabina es de los hombre
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14
con temas meldico-tnicos. Esta simbiosis de lneas de

ndole tnico con tcnicas vanguardista la inici con
Sinfona en Negro (1968) y sobretodo con Homenajes a
Casals y Sarasate (1975).
La cantata Dionisio: In Memoriam fue compuesta
en 2001 por encargo del Otoo Musical Soriano y est
dedicada al maestro Odn Alonso. La Orquesta
Filarmona la estren en ese festival en el ao 2002.
Leonardo Balada
Naci en Barcelona el 22 de Septiembre de 1933. Tras cursar sus estudios de piano y teora en el Conservatorio del
Liceu de Barcelona, se traslad a Nueva York en donde concluy sus estudios de composicin en la Juilliard School
en 1960. Entre sus maestros figuran Aaron Copland, Vincent Percichetti y Igor Markevitch. En la actualidad es
catedrtico de Composicin en la Universidad Carnegie Mellon de Pittsburgh, EE.UU. Algunas de sus obras ms
conocidas fueron compuestas en un estilo de gran drama dentro de la vanguardia de los aos sesenta (Guernica,
Mara Sabina, Steel Symphony, No-res etc.). Posteriormente se le reconoce como pionero en la simbiosis de msica
tnica con las tcnicas vanguardistas, con lo que ha creado un estilo personal e influyente. Ha recibido varios
premios internacionales. Su extensa lista de obras se interpretan regularmente en Europa y Amrica por las
principales orquestas y solistas. Entre las primeras figuran las Filarmnicas de Nueva York, Los ngeles, Israel; la
Orquesta de Filadelfia; las Sinfnicas de Pittsburgh, Dallas, Cincinnati, Detroit, Nacionales de Washington, Irlanda,
Espaa, Lyon, Toulouse, Philarmonia de Londres; orquestas de las radios de Luxemburgo, BBC, Berlin, Moscu,
orquesta de Cmara de Chicago, de Lausana, etc Entre los directores y solistas contamos a Lorin Maazel,
Mstislav Rostropovitch, Rafael Frhbeck de Burgos, Jess Lpez-Cobos, Mariss Jansons, Neville Marriner, Alicia
de Larrocha, Narciso Yepes, Angel Romero, The American Brass Quintet, el actor-narrador Jos Ferrer. Ha
colaborado con Salvador Dal y con el premio Nobel de literatura Camilo Jos Cela. Ha recibido encargos de un
elevado nmero de prestigiosas instituciones: la Opera de San Diego, Aspen Festival, Benedum Center for the
Performing Arts, Sociedad Estatal del V Centenario (la pera Cristbal Coln), Orquesta de Cmara de Lausana, la
sinfnicas de Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Hartford, Nacional de Espaa etc
Compositor primordialmente sinfnico y lrico, ha compuesto varias peras, entre ellas Zapata y Cristbal
Coln. Esta pera se estren en el Gran Teatro del Liceu de Barcelona en 1989 interpretada por Jos Carreras y
Montserrat Caballe atrayendo atencin internacional. La crtica del Washington Times calific la msica de la pera
de obra maestra y el New York Times de un regalo a su tierra natal. Balada a concluido una secuela de esta
pera: La Muerte de Coln recientemente estrenada y grabada para Naxos Records. En la actualidad esta trabajando
en una pera encargo del Teatro Real de Madrid - Faust-bal - en colaboracin con el dramaturgo surrealista
Fernando Arrabal.
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MARA SABINA
MARIA SABINA
Texto: Camilo Jos Cela
English translation: Luz Castaos & T. Beardsley, Jr.
1 Parte I
Part I
Pregonero
En la serrana de Oaxaca
Crece el hongo de fray Bernandino
Los indios le dicen nanacatlh
Y con l se emborrachan y cantan
Los herejes los sabios los brujos
Las leonadas galas del teyhninti
La sangre del dulce sacrificio
La sangre del ave de la selva
La sangre del Ometepec nio
Enfermo de amor y vanidad
La sangre de los guerreros muertos
En brazos de las sucias doncellas
Al cabo de cuatro siglos largos
Naci el ngel Mara Sabina
Que come teunanacatlh amargo
Y bebe ron y ans y agua clara
La condenaron a muerto en la horca
Y de nada valieron el llanto
De Valentina Pavlovna Wasson
Y el fantasma de Antonin Artaud
Pidiendo caridad al demonio
Clemencia a los ngeles ruinosos
Mil llamas al Popocatepetl
O el fin del mundo a los verdes dioses
Se apiade de Mara Sabina
Y del corazn de sus verdugos
Sin nombre para poder decir
Desnudos alacranes hambrientos
Calvos de tia mansa y de tia
Brava y de astronoma ilegal
Amn y sobre las cien cabezas
Del cordero brille el relmpago.
The Town Crier

In the high Sierra of Oaxaca
The mushrooms of Fray Bernardino grow
The Indians all call it nanacatlh
It makes them drunk and it makes them sing of
The heretics, the sages, the witches
The golden bronze people of the teyhninti
The red blood of the sweet sacrifice
The red blood of the bird of the forest
The red blood of the Ometepec child
Sick with love and with vanity
The red blood of the now dead warriors
In the arms of the dirty young maidens
But at the end of four long centuries
The angel Maria Sabina was born
She eats the bitter teunanacatlh
And drinks rum and anis and pure clear water
They condemned her to death on the gallows
She cannot be saved by the wailing
Of Valentina Pavlovna Wasson
Nor by the stark ghost of Antonin Artaud
Begging mercy from the devil
Pardon from all the ruinous angels
Many flames lit to Popocatepetl
Or the total end of the world from the green gods
Have pity on Maria Sabina
And on the hearts of her hangmen
Nameless, so that one can call them
Deadly scorpions, naked, and famished
Bald from cradle-cap and ringworm
Wild from illicit astronomy
Amen and high above the hundred heads
Of the lamb let brilliant lightning bolts flash
Coro
El pueblo quiere ahorcar a Mara Sabina
El pueblo quiere ver cmo el verdugo que vino
Chorus
The whole town wants to hang Maria Sabina
The whole town wants to see how the hangman
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Oye t tambin verdugo de suaves maneras

Oye jugador de dados
Oye bebedor de cerveza
Oye violador de cadveres, confidente de cadveres,
compadre de los cadveres
Oye taedor de ocarina que pecas con las cabras solteras
Oye mariposa clavada con un alfiler
Oye miserable atesorador de botellas vacas
Oye Martn pescador que vuelas sobre la mar embravecida
Oye aurora boreal
Oye arco iris de slo cinco colores
Me ro de vuestra impaciencia
Me ro porque s que os voy a defraudar con mi pirueta
Me ro de que no sepis aprovechar mejor las
ocasiones
Listen you hangman with soft manners

Listen crap-shooter
Listen beer drinker
Listen profaner of corpses, friend of corpses,
kin of corpses
Listen flute player who sins with maiden goats
Listen pin-pierced butterfly
Listen miserly hoarder of empty bottles
Listen Martin the fisherman who flies over the enraged sea
Listen aurora borealis
Listen rainbow of just five colors
I laugh at your impatience
I laugh because I know I will fool you with my pirouette
I laugh because you do not know how to take
advantage of occasions
3 Parte III
Part III
Coro
Pedimos que el verdugo ahorque
a Mara Sabina
Pedimos que se reparta su carne para cocerla
en nuestros pucheros
Pedimos que la guardia ahuyente al cuervo
y al gusano
Pedimos un poco de sangre reconfortadota.
Chorus
We demand that the hangman now place the rope
on Maria Sabina
We demand that her flesh be distributed so that
we may boil it in our pots and pans
We demand that the watchmen drive away the
crows and all the worms
We demand a small bit of her warm blood to comfort us.
Mara Sabina
El corazn de Cristo
Dios me conoce
El pjaro de limpia
El libro me limpia
El agua me limpia
El aire me limpia
La flor me limpia
Dios me conoce
El corazn de Cristo
Maria Sabina
The heavens know me
God knows me
I am a cleansed woman
The air cleanses me
The heavens know me
God knows me
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Oye San Andrs de la Cruz

Oye Mesalina
Oye flor de la marihuana
Oye ojo pisado por las bestias mansas
Oye sacristn que roba el aceite
Oye descolorida nima del purgatorio
Oye lechuza solitaria
Oye Nicanor
Declaro que soy una muerta que canta
Declaro que conozco la ciencia de levantar
columnas con lgrimas y saliva
Declaro que s preparar elixires de vida y
pcimas de muerte
Declaro que si pido clemencia es para
escarnecer vuestro corazn
Declaro que no creo en vuestra justicia ni en
vuestra injusticia
Declaro que soy culpable ante la ley que os rige
Declaro que desprecio vuestra ley
Declaro que escupo vuestra ley
Declaro que siento compasin por vosotros y por
vuestra ley
Listen St. Andrew on the Cross

Listen Messalina
Listen flower of marihuana
Listen eye that has been trampled by tame beasts
Listen sacristan who steals the oil
Listen discolored soul in purgatory
Listen lonely owl
Listen Nicanor
I declare that I am a corpse that sings
I declare that I know how to raise columns
with tears and saliva
I declare that I can prepare elixirs of life and
potions of death
I declare that if I ask for mercy it is only to
mock your heart
I declare that I do not believe in your justice or
your injustice
I declare that I am guilty under the law that rules you
I declare that I despise your law
I declare that I spit on your law
I declare that I feel compassion for you and for
your law
Coro
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Prepara la sentencia alguacil!
Prepara la fosa verdugo!
Prepara la piedra nio!
No prepares la fosa sepulturero deja que a
Mara Sabina la devoren lo pjaros y la
seque el viento!
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Chorus
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Prepare the sentence for her, you Sheriff
Prepare the rope for her, you Hangman
Prepare the stones for her, you child
Dont prepare the tomb for her, you there gravedigger,
we demand that Maria Sabina by devoured by the
wild birds and dried up by the wind!
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Mara Sabina
Oye reloj del almacn
Oye rata del sumidero
Oye mocita que hoy no quieres mirarme a los ojos
Oye zngano
Oye ramera mimosa que te dejas chupar la sangre
por el zngano
Oye virgen que te miras al espejo con saa
Maria Sabina
Listen warehouse clock
Listen sewer rat
Listen young girl who wont look me in the eye today
Listen pimp
Listen spoiled harlot who allows her blood
to be sucked by the pimp
Listen virgin who looks at yourself in the mirror with fury
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de la ciudad ahorca a Mara Sabina

El pueblo quiere tirarle de los pies a Mara
Sabina ahorcada
El pueblo quiere besar la falda de Mara Sabina
from the city kills Maria Sabina

The whole town wants to pull the dangling feet
of the hanged Maria Sabina
The whole town wants to kiss the skirt of Maria Sabina
Mara Sabina
Soy una mujer que llora
Soy una mujer que escupe
Soy una mujer que ya no da leche
Soy una mujer que habla
Soy una mujer que grita
Soy una mujer que da la vida
Soy una mujer que ya no pare
Soy una mujer que flota sobre las aguas
Soy una mujer que vuela por los aires
Soy una mujer del aire
Soy una mujer que bebe el humo
Soy una mujer de luz
Soy una mujer pura
Soy una mujer de trapo
Soy una mujer que come flores
Soy una mujer capaz de pasar hambres
Soy una mujer que pasa hambres
Soy una mujer que pasa muchas hambres
Soy una mujer sin lengua
Soy una mujer de palo
Soy una mujer con ojos que ni miran ni brillan
Soy una mujer que ve en la tiniebla
Soy una mujer que palpa la gota del roco
posada sobre la yerba
Soy una mujer hecha de polvo y vino aguado
Soy una mujer que suea mientras la atropella el hombre
Soy una mujer que siempre vuelve a ser atropellada
Soy una mujer que no tiene fuerza para levantar una aguja
Soy una mujer condenada a muerte
Soy una mujer de inclinaciones sencillas
Soy una mujer que cra vboras y gorriones en el escote
Maria Sabina
I am a woman who cries
I am a woman who spits
I am a woman who no longer gives milk
I am a woman who speaks
I am a woman who screams
I am a woman who gives life
I am a woman who is now barren
I am a woman who floats over the waters
I am a woman who flies through the air
I am a woman of the air
I am a woman who drinks smoke
I am a woman of light
I am a woman who is pure
I am a woman of rags
I am a woman who eats flowers
I am a woman capable of suffering hunger
I am a woman who is suffering hunger
I am a woman who often suffers hunger
I am a woman without a tongue
I am a woman of sticks
I am a woman with eyes that neither see nor shine
I am a woman who sees in the shadows
I am a woman who caresses the drop of dew
on the grass
I am a woman made of dust and watered wine
I am a woman who daydreams while a man rapes her
I am a woman who always gets raped again
I am a woman who does not have the strength to lift a pin
I am a woman condemned to death
I am a woman of simple inclinations
I am a woman who grows snakes and sparrows on her
bosom
I am a woman who grows salamanders and ferns
in her armpits
I am a woman who grows moss on her chest and belly
I am a woman whom no one ever kissed with enthusiasm
I am a woman who hides pistols and rifles in
Soy una mujer que cra salamandras y helechos

en el sobaco
Soy una mujer que cra musgo en el pecho y en el vientre
Soy una mujer a la que nadie bes jams con entusiasmo
Soy una mujer que esconde pistolas y rifles en
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de los tejados
Soy una mujer fiel
en el lavabo
las uas
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over the rooftops
in the sink
her nails
10
los leprosos
the lepers
2 Parte II
Part II
Coro
Mara Sabina
Mara Sabina
pies de Mara Sabina
Chorus
Mara Sabina
Oye luna
Oye mujer sin alma
Oye mujer sin amor
Oye mujer
Oye Andrmaca
Oye da luminoso
Oye Mara Estuardo
Oye Juan de Arco
Maria Sabina
Listen moon
Listen woman
Listen summer fly
Listen morning star
Listen Andromache
Listen rain water
Listen bright day
Listen Mary Stuart
Listen Joan of Arc
11
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de los tejados
Soy una mujer fiel
en el lavabo
las uas
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over the rooftops
in the sink
her nails
10
los leprosos
the lepers
2 Parte II
Part II
Coro
Mara Sabina
Mara Sabina
pies de Mara Sabina
Chorus
Mara Sabina
Oye luna
Oye mujer sin alma
Oye mujer sin amor
Oye mujer
Oye Andrmaca
Oye da luminoso
Oye Mara Estuardo
Oye Juan de Arco
Maria Sabina
Listen moon
Listen woman
Listen summer fly
Listen morning star
Listen Andromache
Listen rain water
Listen bright day
Listen Mary Stuart
Listen Joan of Arc
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Oye San Andrs de la Cruz

Oye Mesalina
Oye flor de la marihuana
Oye ojo pisado por las bestias mansas
Oye sacristn que roba el aceite
Oye descolorida nima del purgatorio
Oye lechuza solitaria
Oye Nicanor
Declaro que soy una muerta que canta
Declaro que conozco la ciencia de levantar
columnas con lgrimas y saliva
Declaro que s preparar elixires de vida y
pcimas de muerte
Declaro que si pido clemencia es para
escarnecer vuestro corazn
Declaro que no creo en vuestra justicia ni en
vuestra injusticia
Declaro que soy culpable ante la ley que os rige
Declaro que desprecio vuestra ley
Declaro que escupo vuestra ley
Declaro que siento compasin por vosotros y por
vuestra ley
Listen St. Andrew on the Cross

Listen Messalina
Listen flower of marihuana
Listen eye that has been trampled by tame beasts
Listen sacristan who steals the oil
Listen discolored soul in purgatory
Listen lonely owl
Listen Nicanor
I declare that I am a corpse that sings
I declare that I know how to raise columns
with tears and saliva
I declare that I can prepare elixirs of life and
potions of death
I declare that if I ask for mercy it is only to
mock your heart
I declare that I do not believe in your justice or
your injustice
I declare that I am guilty under the law that rules you
I declare that I despise your law
I declare that I spit on your law
I declare that I feel compassion for you and for
your law
Coro
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Prepara la sentencia alguacil!
Prepara la fosa verdugo!
Prepara la piedra nio!
No prepares la fosa sepulturero deja que a
Mara Sabina la devoren lo pjaros y la
seque el viento!
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Chorus
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Prepare the sentence for her, you Sheriff
Prepare the rope for her, you Hangman
Prepare the stones for her, you child
Dont prepare the tomb for her, you there gravedigger,
we demand that Maria Sabina by devoured by the
wild birds and dried up by the wind!
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Mara Sabina
Oye reloj del almacn
Oye rata del sumidero
Oye mocita que hoy no quieres mirarme a los ojos
Oye zngano
Oye ramera mimosa que te dejas chupar la sangre
por el zngano
Oye virgen que te miras al espejo con saa
Maria Sabina
Listen warehouse clock
Listen sewer rat
Listen young girl who wont look me in the eye today
Listen pimp
Listen spoiled harlot who allows her blood
to be sucked by the pimp
Listen virgin who looks at yourself in the mirror with fury
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de la ciudad ahorca a Mara Sabina

El pueblo quiere tirarle de los pies a Mara
Sabina ahorcada
El pueblo quiere besar la falda de Mara Sabina
from the city kills Maria Sabina

The whole town wants to pull the dangling feet
of the hanged Maria Sabina
The whole town wants to kiss the skirt of Maria Sabina
Mara Sabina
Soy una mujer que llora
Soy una mujer que escupe
Soy una mujer que ya no da leche
Soy una mujer que habla
Soy una mujer que grita
Soy una mujer que da la vida
Soy una mujer que ya no pare
Soy una mujer que flota sobre las aguas
Soy una mujer que vuela por los aires
Soy una mujer del aire
Soy una mujer que bebe el humo
Soy una mujer de luz
Soy una mujer pura
Soy una mujer de trapo
Soy una mujer que come flores
Soy una mujer capaz de pasar hambres
Soy una mujer que pasa hambres
Soy una mujer que pasa muchas hambres
Soy una mujer sin lengua
Soy una mujer de palo
Soy una mujer con ojos que ni miran ni brillan
Soy una mujer que ve en la tiniebla
Soy una mujer que palpa la gota del roco
posada sobre la yerba
Soy una mujer hecha de polvo y vino aguado
Soy una mujer que suea mientras la atropella el hombre
Soy una mujer que siempre vuelve a ser atropellada
Soy una mujer que no tiene fuerza para levantar una aguja
Soy una mujer condenada a muerte
Soy una mujer de inclinaciones sencillas
Soy una mujer que cra vboras y gorriones en el escote
Maria Sabina
I am a woman who cries
I am a woman who spits
I am a woman who no longer gives milk
I am a woman who speaks
I am a woman who screams
I am a woman who gives life
I am a woman who is now barren
I am a woman who floats over the waters
I am a woman who flies through the air
I am a woman of the air
I am a woman who drinks smoke
I am a woman of light
I am a woman who is pure
I am a woman of rags
I am a woman who eats flowers
I am a woman capable of suffering hunger
I am a woman who is suffering hunger
I am a woman who often suffers hunger
I am a woman without a tongue
I am a woman of sticks
I am a woman with eyes that neither see nor shine
I am a woman who sees in the shadows
I am a woman who caresses the drop of dew
on the grass
I am a woman made of dust and watered wine
I am a woman who daydreams while a man rapes her
I am a woman who always gets raped again
I am a woman who does not have the strength to lift a pin
I am a woman condemned to death
I am a woman of simple inclinations
I am a woman who grows snakes and sparrows on her
bosom
I am a woman who grows salamanders and ferns
in her armpits
I am a woman who grows moss on her chest and belly
I am a woman whom no one ever kissed with enthusiasm
I am a woman who hides pistols and rifles in
Soy una mujer que cra salamandras y helechos

en el sobaco
Soy una mujer que cra musgo en el pecho y en el vientre
Soy una mujer a la que nadie bes jams con entusiasmo
Soy una mujer que esconde pistolas y rifles en
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MARA SABINA
MARIA SABINA
Texto: Camilo Jos Cela
English translation: Luz Castaos & T. Beardsley, Jr.
1 Parte I
Part I
Pregonero
En la serrana de Oaxaca
Crece el hongo de fray Bernandino
Los indios le dicen nanacatlh
Y con l se emborrachan y cantan
Los herejes los sabios los brujos
Las leonadas galas del teyhninti
La sangre del dulce sacrificio
La sangre del ave de la selva
La sangre del Ometepec nio
Enfermo de amor y vanidad
La sangre de los guerreros muertos
En brazos de las sucias doncellas
Al cabo de cuatro siglos largos
Naci el ngel Mara Sabina
Que come teunanacatlh amargo
Y bebe ron y ans y agua clara
La condenaron a muerto en la horca
Y de nada valieron el llanto
De Valentina Pavlovna Wasson
Y el fantasma de Antonin Artaud
Pidiendo caridad al demonio
Clemencia a los ngeles ruinosos
Mil llamas al Popocatepetl
O el fin del mundo a los verdes dioses
Se apiade de Mara Sabina
Y del corazn de sus verdugos
Sin nombre para poder decir
Desnudos alacranes hambrientos
Calvos de tia mansa y de tia
Brava y de astronoma ilegal
Amn y sobre las cien cabezas
Del cordero brille el relmpago.
The Town Crier

In the high Sierra of Oaxaca
The mushrooms of Fray Bernardino grow
The Indians all call it nanacatlh
It makes them drunk and it makes them sing of
The heretics, the sages, the witches
The golden bronze people of the teyhninti
The red blood of the sweet sacrifice
The red blood of the bird of the forest
The red blood of the Ometepec child
Sick with love and with vanity
The red blood of the now dead warriors
In the arms of the dirty young maidens
But at the end of four long centuries
The angel Maria Sabina was born
She eats the bitter teunanacatlh
And drinks rum and anis and pure clear water
They condemned her to death on the gallows
She cannot be saved by the wailing
Of Valentina Pavlovna Wasson
Nor by the stark ghost of Antonin Artaud
Begging mercy from the devil
Pardon from all the ruinous angels
Many flames lit to Popocatepetl
Or the total end of the world from the green gods
Have pity on Maria Sabina
And on the hearts of her hangmen
Nameless, so that one can call them
Deadly scorpions, naked, and famished
Bald from cradle-cap and ringworm
Wild from illicit astronomy
Amen and high above the hundred heads
Of the lamb let brilliant lightning bolts flash
Coro
El pueblo quiere ahorcar a Mara Sabina
El pueblo quiere ver cmo el verdugo que vino
Chorus
The whole town wants to hang Maria Sabina
The whole town wants to see how the hangman
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Oye t tambin verdugo de suaves maneras

Oye jugador de dados
Oye bebedor de cerveza
Oye violador de cadveres, confidente de cadveres,
compadre de los cadveres
Oye taedor de ocarina que pecas con las cabras solteras
Oye mariposa clavada con un alfiler
Oye miserable atesorador de botellas vacas
Oye Martn pescador que vuelas sobre la mar embravecida
Oye aurora boreal
Oye arco iris de slo cinco colores
Me ro de vuestra impaciencia
Me ro porque s que os voy a defraudar con mi pirueta
Me ro de que no sepis aprovechar mejor las
ocasiones
Listen you hangman with soft manners

Listen crap-shooter
Listen beer drinker
Listen profaner of corpses, friend of corpses,
kin of corpses
Listen flute player who sins with maiden goats
Listen pin-pierced butterfly
Listen miserly hoarder of empty bottles
Listen Martin the fisherman who flies over the enraged sea
Listen aurora borealis
Listen rainbow of just five colors
I laugh at your impatience
I laugh because I know I will fool you with my pirouette
I laugh because you do not know how to take
advantage of occasions
3 Parte III
Part III
Coro
Pedimos que el verdugo ahorque
a Mara Sabina
Pedimos que se reparta su carne para cocerla
en nuestros pucheros
Pedimos que la guardia ahuyente al cuervo
y al gusano
Pedimos un poco de sangre reconfortadota.
Chorus
We demand that the hangman now place the rope
on Maria Sabina
We demand that her flesh be distributed so that
we may boil it in our pots and pans
We demand that the watchmen drive away the
crows and all the worms
We demand a small bit of her warm blood to comfort us.
Mara Sabina
El corazn de Cristo
Dios me conoce
El pjaro de limpia
El libro me limpia
El agua me limpia
El aire me limpia
La flor me limpia
Dios me conoce
El corazn de Cristo
Maria Sabina
The heavens know me
God knows me
I am a cleansed woman
The air cleanses me
The heavens know me
God knows me
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Page 14
lo dramtico con lo lrico y contemplativo.

La msica de esta cantata est compuesta en el
estilo modernista que caracteriza mis composiciones y
en este sentido tiene cierto parecido a Mara Sabina,
No-res y Torquemada todas cantatas de carcter
abstracto-dramtico. Pero adems, y dentro de esta
modernidad, se visualiza la existencia de motivos
musicales que identifican a realidades ideolgicas o
folclricas. Esto hace que Dionisio: In Memoriam se
acerque tambin a mis peras Cristbal Coln y Zapata
en las que las abstracciones musicales se complementan
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Chorus
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Read us the sentence now, you Sheriff
Get ready to swing your rope through the air
now, you Hangman
Wash out your mouth well now with rose water
and cloves, you child
Dont prepare the tomb for her, you there
gravedigger, and drive away all the birds here
and all of the worms because the flesh of
Maria Sabina belongs to all men
Ay! Ay! Ay!
Mara Sabina
Sabis que amo el fuego
Sabis que llevo el fuego de un lado para otro
Sabis que escupo fuego si quiero hacerlo
sangre de los mozos
sangre de los muertos
Maria Sabina
You know that I love fire
You know I carry fire from one place to another
You know I spit fire if I wish to do so
face with the blood of young men
face with the blood of the dead
Leonardo Balada
Coro
S, S, sabemos
Chorus
Mara Sabina
Sabis que soy una mujer que se da baos de
asiento con la sangre del len
Maria Sabina
You know that I am a women who takes sitz
baths in the blood of the lion
Coro
S, S, sabemos
Chorus
Mara Sabina
Sabis que soy una mujer que se convierte en humo
Sabis que soy una mujer que tiene el corazn de aire
Sabis que soy una mujer que vuela como el vilano
Sabis que soy una mujer que flota igual que el corcho
Sabis que soy una mujer que an puede parir
Sabis que soy una mujer a la que vais a quitar la vida
Sabis que soy una mujer no ms viciosa que las
otras mujeres
Sabis que soy una mujer entera y que
no llora
Maria Sabina
You know that I am a woman who turns herself into smoke
You know that I am a woman whose heart is made of air
You know that I am a woman who flies like a bird
You know that I am a woman who floats like a cork
You know that I am a woman who can still give birth
You know that I am a woman whom you are going to kill
You know that I am a woman no more licentious
than other women
You know that I am a woman who is whole and does
not cry
Coro
Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay!
Lee ya la sentencia alguacil!
Disponte a columpiarte en el aire verdugo!
Lvate bien la boca con agua de rosas nio!
No prepares la fosa sepulturero y ahuyenta los
pjaros y los gusanos que la carne de Mara
Sabina es de los hombre
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con temas meldico-tnicos. Esta simbiosis de lneas de

ndole tnico con tcnicas vanguardista la inici con
Sinfona en Negro (1968) y sobretodo con Homenajes a
Casals y Sarasate (1975).
La cantata Dionisio: In Memoriam fue compuesta
en 2001 por encargo del Otoo Musical Soriano y est
dedicada al maestro Odn Alonso. La Orquesta
Filarmona la estren en ese festival en el ao 2002.
Leonardo Balada
Naci en Barcelona el 22 de Septiembre de 1933. Tras cursar sus estudios de piano y teora en el Conservatorio del
Liceu de Barcelona, se traslad a Nueva York en donde concluy sus estudios de composicin en la Juilliard School
en 1960. Entre sus maestros figuran Aaron Copland, Vincent Percichetti y Igor Markevitch. En la actualidad es
catedrtico de Composicin en la Universidad Carnegie Mellon de Pittsburgh, EE.UU. Algunas de sus obras ms
conocidas fueron compuestas en un estilo de gran drama dentro de la vanguardia de los aos sesenta (Guernica,
Mara Sabina, Steel Symphony, No-res etc.). Posteriormente se le reconoce como pionero en la simbiosis de msica
tnica con las tcnicas vanguardistas, con lo que ha creado un estilo personal e influyente. Ha recibido varios
premios internacionales. Su extensa lista de obras se interpretan regularmente en Europa y Amrica por las
principales orquestas y solistas. Entre las primeras figuran las Filarmnicas de Nueva York, Los ngeles, Israel; la
Orquesta de Filadelfia; las Sinfnicas de Pittsburgh, Dallas, Cincinnati, Detroit, Nacionales de Washington, Irlanda,
Espaa, Lyon, Toulouse, Philarmonia de Londres; orquestas de las radios de Luxemburgo, BBC, Berlin, Moscu,
orquesta de Cmara de Chicago, de Lausana, etc Entre los directores y solistas contamos a Lorin Maazel,
Mstislav Rostropovitch, Rafael Frhbeck de Burgos, Jess Lpez-Cobos, Mariss Jansons, Neville Marriner, Alicia
de Larrocha, Narciso Yepes, Angel Romero, The American Brass Quintet, el actor-narrador Jos Ferrer. Ha
colaborado con Salvador Dal y con el premio Nobel de literatura Camilo Jos Cela. Ha recibido encargos de un
elevado nmero de prestigiosas instituciones: la Opera de San Diego, Aspen Festival, Benedum Center for the
Performing Arts, Sociedad Estatal del V Centenario (la pera Cristbal Coln), Orquesta de Cmara de Lausana, la
sinfnicas de Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Hartford, Nacional de Espaa etc
Compositor primordialmente sinfnico y lrico, ha compuesto varias peras, entre ellas Zapata y Cristbal
Coln. Esta pera se estren en el Gran Teatro del Liceu de Barcelona en 1989 interpretada por Jos Carreras y
Montserrat Caballe atrayendo atencin internacional. La crtica del Washington Times calific la msica de la pera
de obra maestra y el New York Times de un regalo a su tierra natal. Balada a concluido una secuela de esta
pera: La Muerte de Coln recientemente estrenada y grabada para Naxos Records. En la actualidad esta trabajando
en una pera encargo del Teatro Real de Madrid - Faust-bal - en colaboracin con el dramaturgo surrealista
Fernando Arrabal.
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Leonardo Balada (nacido 1933)

Colaborar con grandes escritores ha sido una de las
experiencias ms satisfactorias de mi carrera profesional
pues hay algo fuera de serie en su manera de ver el
mundo. Este aspecto de mis experiencias artsticas slo
puede compararse con mis experiencias con grandes
pintores. Colaborar con Salvador Dal y Alfonso Mier y
el novelista Camilo Jos Cela se ha hecho sentir en mi
manera de pensar musical.
Conoc a Cela - Premio Nbel de Literatura - en
1967 en Nueva York. Cuando le expres mi intencin de
componer una cantata con mi propio texto su respuesta
fue zapatero a tus zapatos. Me dijo que estaba
trabajando en un poema basado en la hechicera azteca
Mara Sabina y que le visitara en Mallorca para hablar
de una colaboracin en el proyecto. Una vez en su villa
mediterrnea vi que su texto estaba ya avanzado, pero
no lo suficiente como para que no pudiera incluir en sus
escritos frases y expresiones que mi primera esposa Mnica, actriz irlandesa de extrovertidas ideas y
expresiones y a quien la obra est dedicada - profiriera
durante la visita.
Esta tragifona refleja con precisin la dualidad en
la esencia de la obra: su teatralidad al modo de tragedia
griega (tragi) y su aspecto sinfnico-musical
(fona). No hay solistas vocales, solo actores. Los
coros declaman o cantan espordicamente de forma
lrico-dramtica.
Mara Sabina, la famosa hechicera india del culto de
los hongos alucingenos de Oaxaca (Mjico) falleci no
hace muchos aos de causas naturales. Sin embargo no
es as en la tragifona. En el Pregn el Pregonero
anuncia al pueblo que Mara Sabina ha sido condenada a
la horca por brujera y nadie ni nada podr salvarla. En
la Primera Melopea el pueblo aprueba la sentencia
contra Mara Sabina, aunque la respeta y admira. Mara
Sabina anuncia sus virtudes y sus pecados. En la
Segunda Melopea la viejas del pueblo aplauden la
sentencia contra Mara Sabina presas de su fervor
supersticioso. Mara Sabina invoca la naturaleza y la
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muerte y proclama sus poderes sobrenaturales. El

Pueblo apremia al verdugo a que cumpla la misin que
se le encomend de darle muerte. En la Tercera
Melopea el Pueblo reclama que se cumpla la sentencia y
Mara Sabina, en un esfuerzo desesperado, se declara
pura y limpia de toda culpa. El pueblo pide que su
inevitable agona sea corta y Mara Sabina vuelve a
salmodiar sus virtudes y sus pecados. El Verdugo pide
perdn a Maria Sabina y la sentencia se cumple. Mara
Sabina tuvo su estreno en el Carnegie Hall de Nueva
York en Abril de 1970 en su versin original, la cual se
interpret cinco semanas despus en el Teatro de la
Zarzuela de Madrid. Durante esta presentacin la obra
fue recibida con gran protesta por el pblico contrario,
en parte, a la modernidad de la msica pero sobretodo
ofendido por el texto. Dirigiendo los coros y orquesta de
la TV Espaola, me vi obligado a interrumpir el
concierto en dos ocasiones.
La cantata Dionisio: In Memoriam es un homenaje
a Dionisio Ridruejo el poeta y poltico de Soria.
Basndose en sus escritos poticos y su prosa de
carcter ideolgico, filosfico o descriptivo, expresa
tanto su amor por las tierras de Soria como el drama de
las duras jornadas de combatiente en el frente de Rusia
como partcipe en la Divisin Azul. Este era un ejrcito
de voluntarios espaoles enviado por Franco para
combatir al lado de los nazis contra los bolcheviques,
durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Al regreso de esas
campaas blicas Ridruejo rompe con Franco y sus
ideologas y se tornan ahora en pro de una visin
democrtica para Espaa. La seleccin de esos textos se
debe al escritor soriano Emilio Ruiz, quien a su vez
aporta sus propios escritos en forma de comentarios
para complementar. Los textos de Ridruejo son
declamados exclusivamente por el Narrador mientras
que los de Ruiz los canta el coro mixto. El desarrollo de
la obra no responde a una estructura cronolgica de
eventos, sino ms bien a una interpretacin de sntesis
de lo que ocurre, se describe y se piensa. La obra alterna
Sabis que soy una mujer que os escupe a la cara

Sabis que soy una mujer que mea con ruidoso
entusiasmo
Sabis que soy una mujer que alimenta ancianos
con su leche
Sabis que soy una mujer que canta y toca la campana
Sabis que soy una mujer que canta y toca
el violn
Sabis que soy una mujer que vomita de asco sobre
vuestras cabezas
You know that I am a woman who spits in your faces

You know that I am a woman who pees with noisy
enthusiasm
You know that I am a woman who feeds the old men
with her milk
You know that I am a woman who sings and rings the bell
You know that I am a woman who sings and plays
the violin
You know that I am a woman who vomits with disgust
over your heads
Coro
Disparad cohetes para que su estruendo no
Pegad a vuestros hijos para que su llanto no
Chorus
Set off firecrackers so that the horrid noise will protect
our ears from the evil words of Maria Sabina
Beat all your smallest children so that their loud crying
will protect our ears from the evil words of
Maria Sabina
Mara Sabina
El corazn de su Santsima Madre
Dios me conoce
Soy una mujer sin sangre
El pjaro me roba la sangre
El libro abierto me roba la sangre
El agua me roba la sangre
El aire me roba la sangre
La flor me roba la sangre
Dios me conoce
El corazn de la Santsima Madre de Cristo
Maria Sabina
The heart of his Most Blessed Mother
The saints in the heaven and the angels know me
God knows me
I am a woman without blood
The bird steals my blood
The open book steals my blood
The water steals my blood
The air steals my blood
The flower steals my blood
The saints in heaven and the angels know me
God knows me
The heart of the Most Blessed Mother of Christ
Coro
Ay!, Ay!
Atended a la lectura de la sentencia por el alguacil!
Chorus
Ay!, Ay!
Listen with care to the reading of the harsh sentence by
the Sheriff there
Miss not one small detail of the fine and careful
work of the Hangman
Raise up all your children, raise them high above your
heads so that they remember this very moment for
all the rest of their lives
No perdis detalle del esmerado oficio del verdugo!

Levantad a los nios sobre vuestras cabezas para que
recuerden este instante durante toda la vida!
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Emborrachad al sepulturero y rompedle en mil pedazos

el azadn!
Lets get him drunk. Get the gravedigger drunk and

break up his hoe into a thousand pieces
Mara Sabina
El corazn de Cristo
Dios me conoce
El pjaro me limpia
El libro me limpia
El agua me limpia
El aire me limpia
La flor me limpia
Dios me conoce
El corazn de Cristo
Maria Sabina
The heavens know me
God knows me
I am cleansed woman
The air cleanses me
The heavens know me
God knows me
Coro
Desatad al verdugo!
Dad al verdugo un vaso de aguardiente!
Guardad un respetuoso silencio cuando el verdugo
cierre los ojos!
!Viva el verdugo!
Chorus
Take off the Hangmans blindfold
Offer the Hangman a glass of good tequila
You must hold silence, respectful silence now when
the Hangman closes both his eyes
Long live the Hangman
Alguacil
Ah la tenis verdugo
Matadla ya
Nadie os ha de pedir cuentas de vuestra accin
Constable
There you have her Hangman
Kill her now
No one will ask you to account for your deed
Verdugo
Perdonadme Mara Sabina
Es slo un momento
Executioner
Forgive me, Maria Sabina
It will take one moment
Coro
Mara Sabina Mara Sabina
Chorus
Maria Sabina Maria Sabina
FIN
THE END

Established in 1984 and 1987 respectively, through the initiative of the Cultural Council,
the Orchestra and Chorus of the Comunidad de Madrid have enjoyed considerable
success in various musical centres in Spain, doing much to promote music, until June
2000 under the direction of Miguel Groba, and continuing its work under the patronage of
the Madrid Arts Council. The orchestra and chorus have participated in important
musical festivals and events throughout Spain, appearing under the direction of the most
distinguished conductors and with leading soloists. There have been recordings for
national radio and television as well as for major record companies, including the opera
Merlin by Albniz for Decca. Since January 1998 the orchestra has served as the resident orchestra of the Teatro de La
Zarzuela, where in 2000 it performed Debussys Le martyre de Saint Sbastien under Lorin Maazel. Since September
2000 Jordi Casas Bayer has served as chorus-master and Jos Ramn Encinar as principal conductor.
Flix Redondo
Assistant director of the Comunidad de Madrid Chorus and conductor of the Childrens
Choir, Flix Redondo was born in Villarubia de los Ojos, Ciudad Real, and studied at the
Madrid Conservatory. His long choral experience has seen him as conductor of the Ciudad
Real Xtar Chamber Chorus, the Coral Allegro, the Chorus of the Madrid Pharmaceutical
College, Chorus and Escolona Aldovea and Abada Chamber Chorus, with which he made a
recording of Gregorian chant and liturgical polyphony as part of the ABC Treasures of
Spanish Music. He has worked with various professional groups, conducting concerts and
operas, and has collaborated in the preparation of concerts of works by contemporary
composers, together with distinguished conductors and soloists.
Jos Ramn Encinar

Born in Madrid in 1954, Jos Ramn Encinar has conducted practically all Spains major
orchestras, and orchestras abroad throughout Europe and in Central and South America. He has a
strong interest in twentieth-century music, and has conducted rare and standard repertoire in
Spain and abroad. He acted as composition aide to Franco Donatoni in international masterclasses held at the Accademia Chigiana from 1976 to 1982, and since 1972 has directed the Koan
Group, an ensemble for the performance of twentieth-century music. From 1982 to 1984 he was
resident conductor and artistic director of the Gran Canaria Philharmonic, and since 1985 has
been a Spanish Committee Member of the International Society for Contemporary Music. His
many prizes include the 1982 Diario 16 Icarus (caro) Prize, the Ministry of Culture First Prize
for Polyphonic Composition in 1981, and the 1978 C.E.C.A. First Prize for Chamber Music Composition. In 1998 he
received the Spanish Ministry of Cultures National Music Prize. Since 1994 he has been a Corresponding Member
of the Granada Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1998 he became Principal Associate Conductor of the Segovia
Summer Music Festival and from 1998 Principal Guest Conductor of the Proyecto Gerhard Chamber Ensemble. In
the 1999/2000 season he was appointed resident conductor of the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, and since
September 2000 has been the resident conductor of the Comunidad de Madrid Orchestra and Chorus.
Music and Words by Leonardo Balada and Camilo Jos Cela

1972 (Renewed 1999) COLGEMS-EMI MUSIC INC.
All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Used By Permission.
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Susi Snchez
DIONISIO: IN MEMORIAM
DIONISIO: IN MEMORIAM
The well known actress Susi Snchez was born in Valencia in 1955 and after four years in
Mallorca settled in Madrid, where, at the age of sixteen, she appeared with an independent
university theatre group. This led her to study at RESAD in Madrid courses with Martn
Adjemian, John Strasberg, D. de Faccio, Carlos Gandolfo, and others, later collaborating with
the Estudio Corazza. She went on to work with leading directors, including Jos Luis Gmez,
Llus Pasqual, Miguel Narros, Simn Surez, Emilio Hernndez, Mara Ruiz, Augusto
Fernndes, John Strasberg, Consuelo Trujillo, and Daniel Veronese, among others, appearing
in tours throughout Spain and abroad, and winning considerable distinction in a notable series
of plays, rewarded in 2005 with the Actors Union Prize. Her work in the cinema has
included Vicente Arandas Juana la loca, nominated for the Actors Union Prize, and she has
appeared in a number of radio and television series. In 2007 she received the International Festival Prize of Sol de
Tenerife as Best Actress 2007 and the Tirant de Valencia Prize for her work in Juan Carlos Clavoss Electroshock.
Texto del Narrador: Dionisio Ridruejo;

Texto del Coro: Emilio Ruiz
Text of Narrator: Dionisio Ridruejo;

Text of Chorus: Emilio Ruiz
4 Parte I
Part I
Coro: Hambre, Gloria, Vida.

Narrador: Vida, Gloria, Hambre.
Coro: Soemos en esta hora tiempos de sed y nostalgia.
Desde el chirriar de la rueda con estopa hasta el
cementerio de Nvgorod en Rusia en primavera puro y
solo sobre una tierra sin color sin figura sin esfuerzos.
Nieve, nieve. Estrellas irreales velando su imposible
belleza. Nvgorod en Rusia.
Narrator: Soledad. Ni una montaa lejos. Ni la
excepcin seera de los chopos junto al ro ondulante
que en Castilla gua la sed hacia el nivel del gozo. Qu
ser de nosotros? Quin os hizo tan pobres hombres?
Soy yo acaso aquel inmenso nio de otros tiempos?
Vuelve todo y mana el para siempre ayer eternamente.
Coro: No poda faltar en su adolescente vida el camino
hacia lo desconocido en busca de otro cielo, otro dios.
Narrator: La vida, Seor, la vida frente al pasado no
cesa. Oh, libertad
todava hoy cuando te escucho tu timbre suena a
esperanza. Las canas ya iban floreciendo en sus sienes.
Coro: Oh, libertad.
Narrador: todava soando a timbre de esperanza. S,
escucho tu voz y el eco.
Coro: Oh libertad. Oh, libertad. La libertad. (Hum).
Narrador: Y el eco en su tristeza se va haciendo tierra,
pueblo y maana.
Coro: La naturaleza, el canto de los pjaros, se va
abriendo camino, las nubes se rasgan y por el azul...
Narrator: Iban tres azores debajo del cielo tres raudas
penumbras de pasin y duelo.
Coro: Y as raudo desde su pueblo parte
Narrador: Eran jvenes con las manos del
que an es ciego y no se engaa tanteando bajo la
hiedra el quebranto de la muralla. Eran jvenes Tormes,
Manrique, Melibea, Guadarrama, Miguel, Espaa,
librando carne tierna y rosa, rbol en flor y fuente clara.
Chorus: Hunger, Glory, Life.

Narrator: Life, Glory, Hunger.
Ch.: Let us dream now of times of thirst and nostalgia.
From the squeaking of the wheel to the cemetery of
Novgorod in Russia in the spring pure and alone on top
of an effortless land, without shape or colour. Snow,
snow. Unreal stars that watch its impossible beauty.
Novgorod in Russia.
Narr.: Loneliness. Not even a distant mountain. Not
only the unexpected existence of the black poplar trees
next to the winding river, which in Castille relieves
your thirst pleasurably. What will become of us? Who
made you such poor men? Am I that immense child of
other times? Everything returns and flows eternally.
Ch.: His adolescent life didnt lack a path towards the
unknown in search of a different heaven, a different god.
Narr.: Life, God, in spite of the past continues. Oh,
freedom, still today when I listen to your voice, it
sounds like hope. The hair was already whitening on his
temples.
Ch.: Oh, freedom.
Narr.: Dreaming with hope. Yes, I listen to your voice
and its echo.
Ch.: Oh, freedom. Oh freedom. (Hum)
Narr.: The sad echo is becoming land, people and
tomorrow.
Ch.: Nature, the song of the birds, is on its way, the
clouds break, but the blue
Narr.: There were three hawks under the skies, three
swift penumbra of passion and mourning.
Ch.: Swiftly he leaves his town
Narr.: They were young and they had the hands of a
blind person who is feeling his way under a broken ivycovered wall. They were young Tonnes, Manrique,
Melibea, Guadarrama, Miguel, Espaa, with tender and
pink flesh, a tree and flower and a clear fountain.
Carlos Hiplito
Born in Madrid, Carlos Hiplito prepared for his stage career in the William Layton Actors
Workshop, while studying architecture at the university. He later completed his drama training
in various courses and in workshops in Spain and abroad. Since 1978 he has appeared in plays
by Lope de Vega, Shakespeare, Lorca, ONeill, Tirso de Molina, Pirandello, Brecht, Schiller,
Valle Incln, Caldern, Molire, and Tolstoy, among others, working with directors including
Miguel Narros, Jos Carlos Plaza, Llus Pasqual, Adolfo Marsillach, Pilar Mir, Jaime
Chvarri and Jos Mara Flotats. He has at various times appeared with official companies
such as the National Dramatic Centre and the National Company of Classical Theatre, and has
given first performances of 33 works, most recently Tasmina Rezas Arte and Jordi Galcerns
El Mtodo Gronholm under Tamzin Townsend. His work in the theatre has been recognised by
various awards, the Madrid Ayuntamiento Ricardo Calvo, National Radio Ojo Critico, Diario
16 caro and, from the Union of Actors (on three occasions), the Ercilla, the Mayte and the Max. In 2005 he was
awarded the Comunidad de Madrid Culture Prize. He has taken part in a large number of films, working with
directors including Carlos Saura, Mario Camus, Pilar Mir, Mariano Barroso, Gerardo Vera and Jos Luis Garci,
appearing most recently in Garcis Ninette, Miguel Hermosos Lola and Beda Docampos Quireme. He has
received various awards for his work in the cinema, including the Francisco Rabal of the Murcia Semana de Cine
and a nomination for the Goya Prize. He has collaborated in a number of television series, including Cuntame
cmo pas and as the off-stage voice of the narrator protagonist in Desparecida. He has appeared in a number of
works for speaker and orchestra, among these Seven Scenes from Hamlet by Benet Casablancas with the Comunidad
de Madrid Orchestra under Jos Ramn Encinar, Romeo and Juliet (with music by Gounod, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky
and Prokofiev) with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Siberia under Csar Alvarez, Peter and the Wolf with the
Spaniard Orchestra under Pablo Mielgo, and Stravinskys The Soldiers Tale under Gordan Nicolik.
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Coro: hacia un claustro de silencio instalado en El

Escorial es paz sin viento ni fruto desde esta huerta
divina besa el alma y dice adis a los cuatro
evangelistas.
Narrador: Sinceradores de sueos algunas veces la
tardanza de lo real les detena con todo el cebo en las
palabras. Golpeaban como perdidos hasta el umbral de las
entraas. Donde la herrumbre les deca empujaban la voz.
Y t, Azorn, el ms paciente, el de las cuentas, te
quedabas, luz de camino, entre las cosas que el
sentimiento desampara. Eran jvenes, el naufragio de
gleba pobre y alma vana les embobaba sordamente la voz
vibrante y solitaria. Pero volvan obstinados Con recreante
brisa al alba silabeando Espaa, sindola de libertad y de
maana. Miguel, Ramn, Ramiro, Juan, Azorn. Eran
jvenes y os repiten porque es verdad, yo todava, la tierra,
el pueblo y la maana. Hambre, Gloria, Vida.
Ch.: towards a silent cloister, installed in El Escorial

there is peace without wind nor fruit from inside this
divine orchard which kisses the soul and says goodbye
to the four evangelists.
Narr.: They were dreamers whose grasp of the meaning
of words was put on hold by delayed reality. They were
exerting themselves as lost people up to the threshold of
their insides. Where pain tells them how far they can
push their voice. And you, Azorin, the most patient, the
one in touch with reality, you would continue to light the
way forward. They were young, shipwrecked by poverty
and a vain soul fascinated by the vibrant and solitary
voice. But they returned obsessed with Spain in the new
morning breeze, this breeze of freedom and tomorrow.
Miguel, Ramn, Ramiro, Juan, Azorn. They were
young, and repeat it because it is true, and again, the
land, the people and the tomorrow. Hunger, Glory, Life.
FINAL PARTE I
END OF PART I
5 Parte II
Part II
Coro: Guerra, guerra, la guerra. El dilogo se ha roto.

Todos a luchar en la gran batalla. El chirriar de la
rueda. Lucha. Rusia, rueda, chirriar.
Narrador: Por la altiplanicie... vasta, desolada... y
remota toda la tierra estalla en mil pedazos. Fuego y
desolacin.
Coro: La desgracia, la suerte de los elegidos.
Narrador: fuego y desolacin. Amor, tristeza u odio?
Coro: Guerra, guerra. En Rusia .La desgracia se cierne
sobre los hombres. Como el nebl sobre su presa.
Narrador: Hay tumbas y destrozos, crueles escarchas
que avivan la carne que va muriendo. Cruces que las
ramas amparan y casi pierden. Nios mseros y ateridos
que mendigan. rboles que pierden la hoja, que
tiemblan al rizo de las balas.
Coro: Destrozos avivan muriendo ampara
mendigan Tumbas, carne, destrozos, crueles,
escarchas, que avivan la carne que va muriendo. La
desgracia se cierne sobre los hombres.
Narrador: Un invisible trajn de guerra. Chopos y
Chorus: War, war, the war. The dialog has been

broken. Let us all fight in the great battle. The squeak
of the wheel. Fight. Russia, wheel, squeak.
Narrator: By the high plains vast, empty and
distant all the earth explodes in a thousand pieces. Fire
and desolation.
Ch.: Misfortune, the destiny of the chosen ones.
Narr.: Fire and desolation. Love, sadness or hate?
Ch.: War, war. In Russia. Doom for mankind. Like the
hawk on top of its quarry.
Narr.: There are graves, and destruction, cruel frost
that enlivens the dying flesh. Crosses that the branches
protect and almost cover. Pitiful and frozen children
who beg. Trees that lose their leaves and shiver when
the bullets pass by.
Ch.: Destruction enliven dying protect beg
graves, flesh, destruction, cruel, frost, that enlivens the
dying flesh. Doom to mankind.
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Narr.: An invisible rush of war. Black poplars, oaks
18
Sabina, No-res and Torquemada, but in Dionisio: In

Memoriam one encounters musical ideas of ideological
or folkloric nature. In that sense this work is close to my
operas Columbus and Zapata, in which the abstract
musical material is used along traditional melodic lines.
I started that symbiosis of ethnicity and avant-garde
techniques in Sinfonia en Negro (1969) and developed it
further in Homage to Casals and Sarasate (1975).

Dionisio: In Memoriam was composed in 2001,
commissioned by the Musical Autumn of Soria, and was
first performed in 2002 by the Orquesta Filarmona. The
cantata is dedicated to the Spanish conductor Odn
Alonso.
Leonardo Balada
Leonardo Balada
Born in Barcelona on 22nd September 1933, Leonardo Balada
graduated from the Conservatorio del Liceu there and in 1960 from the
Juilliard School in New York. He studied composition with Vincent
Persichetti, and Aaron Copland, and conducting with Igor Markevitch.
Since 1970 he has been teaching at Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is University Professor of
Composition. Some of his best-known works were written in a
dramatic avant-garde style in the 1960s, including Guernica (Naxos
8.557342), Mara Sabina, and Steel Symphony. He is credited with
later pioneering a blending of ethnic music with avant-garde
techniques, creating a personal and influential style.
Baladas works are performed by the worlds leading orchestras,
such as the Philharmonics of New York, Los Angeles, and Israel, the
Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the
symphonies of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Dallas, conducted
by artists including Lorin Maazel, Mstislav Rostropovich, Rafael
Frhbeck de Burgos, Jess Lpez-Cobos, Mariss Jansons, and Neville
Marriner. He has been commissioned by many outstanding
Leonardo Balada (right) with Camilo Jos Cela
organizations in the United States and Europe, including the Aspen
in New York on the day of the world premire
Festival, the San Diego Opera, the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Hartford
of Mara Sabina (17th April, 1970)
Symphonies, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, The Millennium of
Photograph: Carles Fontsere
Catalonia and Sociedad Estatal para el V Centenario. He has composed
works for artists such as Alicia de Larrocha, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, the American Brass Quintet, Andrs Segovia,
Narciso Yepes, and Angel Romero, and has collaborated with artists and writers such as Salvador Dal and Nobel Prize
winner Camilo Jos Cela. Baladas large catalogue of works includes, in addition to chamber and symphonic
compositions, cantatas, two chamber operas and three full length ones: Zapata, Christopher Columbus and its sequel The
Death of Columbus. Christopher Columbus had its premire in Barcelona in 1989 with Jos Carreras and Montserrat
Caball singing the leading rles and attracted international attention. The New York Times calls Baladas contribution a
gift to his native Catalonia while the Washington Times calls the work a masterpiece... a landmark score in the lyric
theater of our time. At present he is working on an opera commission from the Teatro Real of Madrid, Faust-bal, a 21st
century interpretation of the classical Faust, with a libretto by the surrealist playwright Fernando Arrabal.
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Page 2
Leonardo Balada (b. 1933)

Working with outstanding writers has been one of my
most rewarding professional experiences. There is
something extra dimensional in their way of seeing the
world and expressing it. That aspect of my experience is
only comparable to my experience in being associated
with painters of enormous talent. From Salvador Dal
and Alfonso Mier in the plastic arts to Camilo Jos Cela
in literature, they left a stamp in my musical thinking.
I met Cela, a Nobel Literature Prize Laureate, in
1967 in New York. When I expressed my intention of
composing a cantata with my own text, his answer was
zapatero a tus zapatos (shoemaker stick to making
shoes.) He told me he was working on a text based on
the Aztec Mexican priestess Mara Sabina, and that I
should visit him in Majorca to talk about a
collaboration. Once in his Mediterranean villa I saw that
his writing was under way, although not advanced
enough that he would not add a number of lines after an
interchange with my first wife, Monica, an Irish actress,
to whom the work is dedicated, whose extroverted ideas
and expressions he found interesting, amusing and
suited to the character he was writing about. The
premire in New York was warmly received but in
Madrid, a performance five weeks later at Teatro de la
Zarzuela was booed several times, partly owing to the
modernity of the music but mostly because of the
provocative language of the text. I had to interrupt the
performance I was conducting twice. While composing
the work, the power of the text was so extraordinary that
I felt inspired by it. I recall composing the music even
when I was travelling, in airports or hotels.
Mara Sabina was a Mexican Indian, a mushroomcult priestess who died of natural causes some years
ago. She was still alive when its character was hanged as
culmination of the work at its premire in Carnegie Hall.
Some of the text is based on Mara Sabinas incantations
and the dramatic problems she encountered with her
people, who objected to the opening of the holy rituals
to the outside world.
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Mara Sabina is in three parts. Part I starts with the

Town-crier announcing to the towns people that Mara
Sabina has been condemned to be hanged. They approve
of the sentence although they respect and admire her.
Mara Sabina states her sins and her virtues. In Part II the
old ladies of the town overcome with superstitious
fervour, applaud the sentence. Mara Sabina calls upon
her supernatural powers. The townspeople press the
Hangman to carry out the execution. In Part III the
people insist that she be hanged at once, while Mara
Sabina in a desperate effort proclaims she is pure and
innocent. The Hangman asks Mara Sabina for
forgiveness and the sentence is carried out.
This tragifona (Symphonic Tragedy) for narrator,
chorus and orchestra in its original form was finished in
1969 and had its premire in 1970 at Carnegie Hall,
sponsored by the Hispanic Society of America. Maria
Soledad Romero narrated the title part.
The cantata Dionisio: In Memoriam is a homage to
Dionisio Ridruejo, a poet and politician from Soria,
Spain. It is based on his poems and prose of ideological,
philosophical and descriptive character. It expresses his
love for his land, as well as the experiences as a
volunteer fighter with the Divisin Azul, an army sent
by the Spanish dictator Franco side by side with the
Nazi army, to Russia to fight the Bolsheviks during the
Second World War. On his return from those battles,
Ridruejo broke with Franco and his ideologies and
moved towards supporting a democratic and free Spain.
The selection of the text was made by Emilio Ruiz, a
writer also from Soria, who contributes his own writing
to complement Ridruejos text, which is spoken by a
narrator. Ruizs text is sung by the chorus. The work
does not correspond to a chronological structure of
events but is a synthesis of what happens to the poet and
what he thinks. It alternates the tense and dramatic with
the lyrical and contemplative.
The music of this cantata is in the modernistic style
I used in early compositions, like the cantatas Mara
lamos, robles de pendulantes hojas muertas. Nidos

fortificados y emplazamientos de caones.
Coro: Ay!
Narrador: Sufrimiento en los rostros. Temblorosas
bayonetas caladas. Tumbas, destrozos, escarchas.
Tanques rotos, caballos muertos. Restos de incendio,
huellas de bombas. Muchos cuerpos de hombre estn
ah. Y un gran silencio. Oro, tierra empapada de
sentimientos. Plidas estrellas y un mar que se agita en
la lucha bajo el silbido de intangibles balas.
Coro: Ay! Es el odio, como el fuego. Es la guerra, a
luchar. Slo tumbas. Temblorosas bayonetas. A su
regreso de Rusia escribi al jefe del Estado dndole a
entender su desafeccin por la causa.
Narrador: Blanco sueo, blanco silencio y soledad
radiante. Muere el hombre de accin. Mientras Dios en
su gloria convoca los espacios y rene las horas. Ya
habr cigeas al sol mirando la tarde roja entre
Moncayo y Urbin. Y Soria ya no es tierra y va brotando
de haber sido ayer y de la nieve, clara de estar lejana y
ser memoria. Yo soy el hombre libre que camina... y que
ora, como una lluvia que todo cielo ignora.
Oh, carpinteros, albailes y panaderos y trilladores,
boteros, herreros, carreros, molineros y aserradores. Oh
montaas y cordilleras, vegas, dehesas, lagos, bosques,
ros caudales, altas murallas, puentes, castillos, plazas,
torres, calles de vasto casero, nobles escudos y altivos
porches.Quin os puso bajo colinas diminutas y quin
esconde soto por selva, sed por agua la creacin que
tuvo el hombre?Quin hace aldea lo que fue mundo y
primoroso lo que fue enorme? Pero quin es este que
mide y cuenta? Soy acaso... YO, o es otro SER superior
a todos? Hasta t me engaaste, espritu del hombre, la
piedra labrando su reposo... el tejido del honor y de
justicia.
Coro: Engaado por los hombres, al caer la tarde
cuando pasa el Arcngel y la oracin lo sigue, nace el
hombre poltico de deber. La sangre que pasa por sus
venas tan confiada y pura como recin nacida. Ha
llegado el da de levantar la losa que sepulta al hombre,
a Espaa entera.
19
with dead leaves. Fortified nests and cannons.

Ch.: Ay!
Narr.: Suffering faces. Trembling bayonets. Graves,
destruction, frost. Broken tanks, dead horses. Remains
of fires and bombs. There are many bodies. And a great
silence. Gold, earth soaked with emotions. Pale stars
and a sea that shakes under the whistle of bullets.
Ch.: Ay! That hate is like fire. It is the war, fight. Only
graves. Trembling bayonets. On returning from Russia
he wrote to the jefe del Estado1 letting him know his
discontent with the cause.
Narr.: White dream, white silence and shining solitude.
The man of action dies. While God in his glory
assembles the spaces and the hours. The storks already
are under the sun between Moncayo and Urbion
looking at the red afternoon. And Soria no longer is a
land but it is breaking out from the past and the snow. I
am the free man who walks and prays, like a rain that
heaven ignores.
Oh, carpenters, bricklayers, bakers and threshers,
kegmakers, ironmakers, horsecart drivers, millers, and
sawmill operators. Oh mountains and ranges, valleys,
fields, lakes, forests, rivers with water, high walls,
bridges, castles, plazas, towers, streets of many houses,
noble coats of arms, and imposing porticos. Who put you
at the foot of small hills and who hid bushes instead of
a forest, and thirst instead of water the creation made
by man? Who makes a village from the world and an
exquisite small thing from something enormous? But
who is this one, who measures and counts? Maybe it is I
or is there another BEING superior to us all? Even you
deceived me, spirit of man, the stone carving its resting
place the fabric of honor and justice.
Ch.: Deceived by man, when the afternoon disappears,
when the archangel passes, followed by the prayer, the
political man is born by obligation. The blood that
goes through his veins as confident and pure as if he
had just been created. It is time to lift up the stone that
buries man and all of Spain.
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Page 20
Narrador: Fuera la nieve cae besando hojas secas por

enterrar dejando el valle azul y vago. La tierra oscura.
S, dulces pinares sin nombre, tierra ma, de mi carne
donde el tiempo se realiza con el misterio y renace a la
inseguridad del alba, la agona de la tarde.
Coro: Construir una nueva Espaa
Narrador: Y Soria ya no es tierra y va brotando de
haber sido ayer y de la nieve, clara de estar lejana y ser
memoria un leve murmullo que la va creando.
Coro: sin destruir nuestra razn de ser. Bienvenidos
vosotros los vituperados conservadores de siempre
Narrador: Como una nave surta en la eterna bonanza...
Otra vez empezar, seguir naciendo. Otra vez manantial,
no curso henchido. Otra vez eligiendo la ribera y las
flores amadas.
Coro: inconformistas del hoy que ya es maana.
Lejos queda la sed de podero. El hoy que ya es
maana.
Narrador: Que como la nieve fluye y el rbol amarillo
y seco lamido por el Duero, de paramera negra y
plateada, de pavorosos buitres ahtos de la nada, de
pinares oliendo a corazn de pan, de castillos sin nadie.
Soria pura.
Narr.: Outside the snow falls kissing the dry leaves that
have not been buried, leaving the valley blue and still. The
dark land. Yes, sweet pines without name, my land, of my
flesh where time appears as if a mystery and is reborn with
the insecurity of dawn, the agony of the afternoon.
Ch.: To build a new Spain
Narr.: And Soria no longer is a land but is breaking out
from the past and the snow.
FIN
THE END
Ch.: without destroying our reason for being.

Welcome you, the vilified conservative
Narr.: Like a ship which is navigating in an eternal
calm Begin again, keep on recreating yourself. Again
a spring, not overflowing. Again choosing the riverbank
and the loved flowers.
Ch.: the non-conformists of today, which is already
tomorrow. Far remains the thirst for power. Today is
tomorrow.
Narr.: Which is like the flowing snow and the dry,
yellow tree licked by the river Duero, with uncultivated,
barren, black and silver plains, with frightening
vultures, the creatures from nothingness, with fragrant
pines, with deserted castles. Pure Soria.
Franco, Head of the Spanish Government.
English translation: Joan and Leonardo Balada
The texts for Dionisio: In Memoriam are reproduced by kind permission

of the authors heirs, Dionisio Ridruejo de Ros, Gloria Ridruejo de Ros,
Eva Ridruejo de Ros and Fdo. Emilio Ruiz.
8.570425
20
Leonardo
BALADA
Mara Sabina
Dionisio: In Memoriam
Jos Ramn Encinar
NAXOS
NAXOS
8.570425
Playing Time
Leonardo
68:52
BALADA
(b. 1933)
Mara Sabina (1969)
38:09 Dionisio: In Memoriam (2001) 30:43
I: En la serrana de Oaxaca 1 7:56

2 Part II: Las viejecitas impedidas
quieren ahorcar a Mara Sabina 2 16:33
3 Part III: Pedimos que el verdugo
ahorque a Mara Sabina 3
13:40
1 Part
I: Hambre, Gloria, Vida 4

5 Part II: Guerra, guerra,
la guerra 5
4 Part
12:43
18:00
8.570425
8.570425
Spanish sung texts and English translations included

Recorded at the Rehearsal Hall of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Comunidad de Madrid,
Teatro Isabel Clara Eugenia, Spain, from 27th to 30th June, 2006 (tracks 1-3),
and from 29th November to 1st December, 2006, and 23rd to 25th May, 2007 (tracks 4 and 5)
Producer: Javier Zuazu Engineers: Miguel ngel Barcos and Miguel Alonso
Editor: Miguel Alonso Booklet notes: Leonardo Balada
Publishers: G. Schirmer, Inc. (tracks 1-3); Beteca Music (tracks 4 and 5)
Cover image: Mara Sabina (2006) by Aira Balada (used by kind permission)
& 2008
Naxos Rights International Ltd.

Jos Ramn Encinar
Booklet notes in English Comentarios en espaol

Disc made in Canada. Printed and assembled in USA.
Susi Snchez, Narrator (Mara Sabina) 1-3

ngel Siz, Narrator (The Town Crier/Constable) 1, 3
Fernando Tejedor, Narrator (Executioner) 3 Carlos Hiplito, Narrator 4, 5
DDD
www.naxos.com
The Barcelona-born composer Leonardo Balada is credited with pioneering a blending of ethnic
music with avant-garde techniques. The symphonic tragedy Mara Sabina, one of Baladas bestknown works, tells the extraordinary story of Sabina, a Mexican Indian mushroom-cult priestess
who meets fierce resistance from her people when endeavouring to open the holy rituals to the
outside world. Some of the text in Baladas work is based on her incantations, of which the
composer has written, While composing the work, the power of the text was so extraordinary that
I felt inspired by it. I recall composing the music even when I was travelling, in airports or hotels.
The cantata Dionisio: In Memoriam is a homage to Dionisio Ridruejo, a poet and politician from
Soria, Spain, on whose ideological, philosophical and descriptive writings the work is based.

Dionisio in Memoriam - María Sabina

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Dionisio in Memoriam - María Sabina

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Narrador: Fuera la nieve cae besando hojas secas por

Ch.: without destroying our reason for being.

Franco, Head of the Spanish Government.

English translation: Joan and Leonardo Balada

The texts for Dionisio: In Memoriam are reproduced by kind permission

Leonardo Balada (b. 1933)

Mara Sabina is in three parts. Part I starts with the

lamos, robles de pendulantes hojas muertas. Nidos

with dead leaves. Fortified nests and cannons.

las arrugas de la nuca

the wrinkles of her neck

Mara Sabina (1969)

38:09 Dionisio: In Memoriam (2001) 30:43

I: En la serrana de Oaxaca 1 7:56

I: Hambre, Gloria, Vida 4

Spanish sung texts and English translations included

Orchestra and Chorus of the Comunidad de Madrid

Booklet notes in English Comentarios en espaol

Susi Snchez, Narrator (Mara Sabina) 1-3

BALADA: Mara Sabina Dionisio: In Memoriam

BALADA: Mara Sabina Dionisio: In Memoriam

Emborrachad al sepulturero y rompedle en mil pedazos

Lets get him drunk. Get the gravedigger drunk and

Orchestra and Chorus of the Comunidad de Madrid

Jos Ramn Encinar

Music and Words by Leonardo Balada and Camilo Jos Cela

Leonardo Balada (nacido 1933)

muerte y proclama sus poderes sobrenaturales. El

Sabis que soy una mujer que os escupe a la cara

You know that I am a woman who spits in your faces

No perdis detalle del esmerado oficio del verdugo!

lo dramtico con lo lrico y contemplativo.

Ay! Ay! Ay!

con temas meldico-tnicos. Esta simbiosis de lneas de

Texto: Camilo Jos Cela

English translation: Luz Castaos & T. Beardsley, Jr.

The Town Crier

Oye t tambin verdugo de suaves maneras

Listen you hangman with soft manners

Oye San Andrs de la Cruz

Listen St. Andrew on the Cross

de la ciudad ahorca a Mara Sabina

from the city kills Maria Sabina

Soy una mujer que cra salamandras y helechos

las arrugas de la nuca

the wrinkles of her neck

las arrugas de la nuca

the wrinkles of her neck

Oye San Andrs de la Cruz

Listen St. Andrew on the Cross

de la ciudad ahorca a Mara Sabina

from the city kills Maria Sabina

Soy una mujer que cra salamandras y helechos

Texto: Camilo Jos Cela

English translation: Luz Castaos & T. Beardsley, Jr.

The Town Crier

Oye t tambin verdugo de suaves maneras

Listen you hangman with soft manners

lo dramtico con lo lrico y contemplativo.

Ay! Ay! Ay!

con temas meldico-tnicos. Esta simbiosis de lneas de

Leonardo Balada (nacido 1933)

muerte y proclama sus poderes sobrenaturales. El