Estebanico is the first full hour of music from Paul Pinto‘s epic five-hour multilingual musical theater composition exploring the colonization of American land and colorization of American mythology from the standpoint of an enigmatic 16th century “explorer.” This operatic spectacle spans 500 years and is intended to eventually feature percussion-playing singers, a chorus, a chamber orchestra, dancers, pipe organ, live electronics and multichannel audio video.
For its “Under Construction” workshop premiere as part of Under the Radar, it features Paul alongside musicians from Mantra Percussion, Recap Percussion and thingNY.
Unknown by many names, “Estebanico” (often referred to as Mustafa Zammouri) is referred to in Spanish colonial relaciónes as a Black Arab from Morocco, brought by force to the New World in a failed expedition to conquer La Florida. This enslaved polyglot and a trio of Spaniards (the only known survivors) roamed the peopled wilderness of North America for eight years as naked equals, slaves, shamans and physicians. Esteban disappeared into Zuni territory in 1539. Three hundred years later, the Buffalo Soldiers would advocate that this Black man “discovered” New Mexico. Today’s scholars are convinced his visage lives on as a modern kashina (or sacred doll) of the southwest pueblos. Both captive and conqueror, Estebanico continues to confound as a silent myth, claimed and disowned by the modern southwest Puebloan, the 16th Century Spanish capitalist, the 19th Century Black American military, and nationalists, scholars, skeptics and evangelists on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. This inaugural theatrical concert strands Esteban in Florida (for our purposes, a purgatory no one intended to crash into and everyone wants to leave), amidst white conquest for gold and brown musings on language, empire and immigration.
