Letter from Chip Northrup
More About Mango Street
I read the book, “The House on Mango Street,” and I was particularly interested to see how it worked as an opera. The answer is that the Glimmerglass production, which Sandra Cisneros helped write, is as good as the book.
As a theatrical production, the characters and their interactions are brought very much to life. It helps that I know people like the ones portrayed, that the female lead reminded me of my first girlfriend in Texas, Olga Gonzalez. That they epitomized the taco sellers, carpenters, lawyers, policemen, and cowboys that I knew in Texas, good people that came to America to work and, in doing so, have kept America the great country of immigrants that it has always been.
It also helped that my brother-in-law’s nephew, Edmond Rodriguez, was in the cast. https://www.edmondrodriguez.com/. I told the General Director, Rob Ainsley, this before the show, and Abby Rodd during the intermission, so we got to meet our relative from Mango Street after the show.
Edmond was also in “The Rake’s Progress,” which was the hit of a very good Glimmerglass season—the tallest, best looking guy on the stage with a magnificent tenor’s voice.
As they say on Mango Street: “Es el mejor.”
Chip Northrup
Cooperstown
