Linda Mirabal: "Cuba is the focal point of my musical world".

Jaime Maso Torres
18.12.2023
10 minutes of reading

Under the palm trees is the title of the latest album featuring soprano Linda Mirabal, baritone Nelson Toledo and pianist Clara Zayas with the participation of percussionist Ramón González. The LionThe album is a tribute to the musician and composer Ernesto Lecuona, on the 60th anniversary of his death in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. Composed of fourteen titles, the phonogram includes, among others, the songs Siboney and Blue nightthe announcements The fruit bowl and The Sunsunpassing through the romanza Maria La O and the famous waltz lovely damsel.

Recorded between December 2022 and January 2023 in the studios of the Escuela de Música de Vallecas (ESMUVA), Under the palm trees is the eleventh material in Linda Mirabal's discography and the fifth made in Spain, in addition to five in Cuba and one in Switzerland. Motivated by this new work, we talked with the lyric singer, pedagogue and actress Linda Mirabal Jean-Claude, recognized and applauded throughout her career in prestigious international stages.

"I am the product of what my teachers taught me."

-Maestra, was this tribute album to Ernesto Lecuona a pending debt?

-During the pandemic, my husband Nelson Toledo and I started rehearsing to use the time usefully for something we love: singing. We thought we could record several songs with piano, to leave a musical legacy for our children and friends. But as we were recording, we were encouraged to make this CD. At first we started doing opera arias and romanzas from Cuban and Spanish zarzuelas, but in the end we decided on Cuban music, especially that of Ernesto Lecuona, a composer we like very much and who is known internationally for some titles, but many of his songs are unknown here in Spain. There are other Cuban composers that we would have liked to record as well, but we had this pending debt with Lecuona's vocal music.

-Are there other figures you would honor in another production?

-I would like to record songs by the Grenet brothers (Eliseo, Emilio and Ernesto) that are so rich and genuine. But that will be in the future because now we are working on other projects, also with Cuban composers such as Bola de Nieve, Orlando de la Rosa, Sindo Garay, José Antonio Méndez, César Portillo de la Luz, María Teresa Vera, among others.

Born in Haiti and daughter of the famous Haitian-Cuban singer Martha Jean-Claude, Linda is proud of her family history and of having been a disciple of the great Zoila Galvez, Cuba's first black soprano. "She was very important to me and with her example as a performer she instilled in me a love for the profession. It was she who gave me the technical basis to be able to face everything I have done in my career as a lyric singer," she says. Another one who had a notable influence on her was Luis Carbonell, in his little-known phase as a repertoire player, and thanks to him she learned to go through a wide repertoire of works, from Sergéi Rachmaninov to Gilberto Valdés.

"I am the product of what my teachers Luis Carbonell and Zoila Gálvez taught me", confessed Linda to musicographer Rosa Marquetti and added: "I feel very proud to have had the teachers I had, because I learned a profession that I respect and love, and today that I also work as a teacher I understand what they went through and I try to instill in my students what they instilled in me: seriousness, discipline, love".

When in 1981 the filmmaker Humberto Solás presented Cecilia -Linda was already widely known for her consolidated work in the National Puppet Theater, the National Opera of Cuba and in television drama series such as A bolero for Eduardoby Silvano Suárez. But it was the character of Nemesia, Cecilia's close friend and confidant, that opened the path to cinema for her. From that point on, year after year, Linda participated in film projects such as Habanera (1984), by Pastor Vega; Una novia para David (1985), by Orlando Rojas; Baraguá (1986), by José Massip; Gallego (1987), directed by Manuel Octavio Gómez; and ten years later, in the Spanish co-production Things I left in Havana (1997), by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón.

Photo taken from the singer's Facebook profile.

"Art must be integral."

In the opinion of researcher Enrique Río Prado -author of The Bronze Venus. A history of the Cuban zarzuelaLinda Mirabal's best moments are in her performances for the National Lyric Theater.

"The Cuban public had the privilege of witnessing many of the best moments of his career, especially in operetta. the merry widow (1987), by Franz Lehár, staged by Juan R. Amán, and the opera Aida (1988-90), by Verdi, directed by Elena Herrera. These two very different genres require opposing skills, often considered incompatible. In Viennese operetta it is not enough to possess a great voice to excel in a style that demands refinement and frivolity and at the same time dexterity, not only in singing but also in spoken dialogue. On the contrary, Verdi's Egyptian slave demands mastery of amplitude and subtlety in the vocal line and a remarkable dramatic temperament. Let's remember that this last performance earned Linda the inscription in the Book of Honor of the Gran Teatro de La Habana (today Gran Teatro Alicia Alonso) in 1989, along with teachers Elena Herrera and Corina Campos, director of the choirs", she says and adds:

"Some audiovisual archives attest to her participation in the master classes of Montserrat Caballé or her performance as Fenena in Nabuccoby Giuseppe Verdi, or the integral recording of Spanish zarzuela Doña FrancisquitaShe has also played the role of Dolores Santa Cruz, from our national zarzuela, Cecilia ValdésThe first time it will be staged in 2020 at the emblematic Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, which has been a regular stage for many of Linda Mirabal's best moments, undoubtedly one of the great Cuban sopranos of her generation".

We asked Linda why she chose essentially lyrical art and she responded:

"I started my career singing folk music from Haiti, from Cuba and also boleros. I have also done musicals that were not necessarily lyrical. What happens is that when your voice develops, you can't adapt those genres or do them the way they need to be done. That's why you choose the genre in which your voice fits best, without underestimating others".

-What was the most complex work or character? On stage, is everything solved with a good vocal technique?

-There are several works that were very difficult for me to learn and sing, such as The King of Harlem (based on texts by Federico García Lorca with music by the German Hans Werner Henze), or Beatrix Cenciby Alberto Ginastera. The first I sang at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, in Madrid, and the second at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland. For example, it was a new world for me to enter the sound environment of Richard Wagner with a dense orchestra, and of course it was difficult to learn and perform, but with study everything is overcome. Technique is important but it is not everything. Lyric art also requires a good physical shape and a refined interpretation; I don't want to tell you that one thing is more important than the other, because art must be integral so that everything complements each other and your work is enriched.

Photo taken from the singer's Facebook profile.

"I have been a prophet in my own land"

The pianist, composer and pedagogue Ulises Hernández and Linda Mirabal coincided as students at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), but it was not until 1984 that they joined forces on an important tour in Venice where they offered two very different programs: one of the most recognized works of Cuban song and another with arias from operas.

"Since then we have maintained an excellent working relationship that has allowed us to make other tours to different cities in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Spain, France and especially Cuba, where we performed on many stages," says Hernández.

Several things come together in Linda's life that we could take into account, Ulysses says and lists:

"The first thing: coming from a mother who sowed in her important values regarding the defense of identity, in the specific case of Martha Jean-Claude, she defended her Haitian culture, but she also worked hard so that Haitian and Cuban culture would be among the priorities of her children. Therefore, when Linda became part of the cultural life, first as an actress of the National Puppet Theater and later in her career as a soprano, she brings from home the social and identity commitment she has by linking herself with art in Cuba.

"The second: the defense of a somewhat forgotten repertoire, which thanks to the support of Luis Carbonell served to mark the rescue of a space in the Cuban song of authors such as Orlando de la Rosa, Gilberto Valdés and others, for the benefit of Cuban music. The third: the possibility we had to listen to a voice with very special qualities that are not abundant and that served for Cuba to be represented inside and outside the country in an exceptional way. And as a fourth reason I would say that we do not always have voices that move from song to opera or zarzuela and popular music with the mastery of Linda and that is something that the history of our music and our musicians has to pick up".

-Teacher, what do you think of the music that is currently being made?

-I particularly believe that good music is imposed, whatever the genre, and we must learn from the great masters and not get carried away by the vulgar. We must take great care in any interpretation where value is given to the musical content and to the contribution of its lyrics. There is a lack of good composers, stress, shock. Unfortunately, anything goes and it does not seem right to me.

-How present is Cuba still in your mind?

-It is impossible to detach yourself from Cuba, even if you are far away. I was formed in Cuba and my roots are present in my way of speaking, interpreting, dancing... Cuba is the central point of my musical world without forgetting everything I have learned from the places where I have lived in Europe. When you live in Cuba during your childhood and adolescence, you are impregnated with all that experience and it is a great contribution of nationality that is not erased by distance or time. I have been a prophet in my land and I thank all those who have helped me in my training, development and artistic maturity.