The remains of Eva Pern lying in a mausoleum at La Recoleta Cemetery since 1976 are visited daily by curious visitors from around the world whose only insight into her history comes from “Evita,” the Broadway musical and subsequent film immortalizing her memory. Now composer Mariano Vales bares the shocking secrets behind the travels of her mummified corpse in the world premiere of “Momia en el closet: The Return of Eva Pern.”
The musical production commissioned by GALA incorporates music by Vales, book by Gustavo Ott, lyrics by Vales and Ott and choreography by Carina Losano. Vales, who received his masters degree in orchestral conducting from Yale, wrote five other musicals that premiered in his native Argentina where he was awarded the Eduardo Gruneisen Prize for young musicians by the Mozarteum Argentino. He is currently the music director of Camerata Interamericana comprised of musicians from Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra and has composed for several area organizations.
“My interest in writing this musical began eight years ago when I read two stories about Eva’s embalming and what happened to the mummified corpse following her death in 1952,” Vales says. “After General Pern was exiled to Spain in 1955, the body was found abandoned in an office building. It was moved around until it ended up in the basement of the home of a Colonel who lost his mind. Eventually, it went to Italy.
“After Pern married his third wife, Isabel, a man named Jos Lpez Rega became their personal secretary. Lpez Rega was very interested in black magic, which is common in the Afro-Brazilian religion and creeps into Catholicism. When Pern was finally able to locate Eva’s corpse and have it sent to him in Spain, Lpez Rega took control over Isabel and convinced her that Eva’s spirit was transmuted into her.”
Vales’s score calls upon contemporary Latin American music styles to convey the hectic and eerie travels of Eva’s body and soul. Bandonen virtuoso Emmanuel Trifilio came from Buenos Aires to perform on the traditional instrument. Its sound permeates the play to represent the continual presence of Eva’s ghost on its convoluted route to eternity. Trifilio is joined by Dana Scott on keyboard and Nelson çlverez on percussion.
“The whole play is eerie and dark because it’s about a dead body and the bad things that happen to it, but there is plenty of comedy in the midst of horrible events,” Vales says. “There are elements for everyone in the plot, the set design, the fantastic musicians and the melting pot of rhythms and styles that come together: jazz, Caribbean, salsa and tango. The final number, a true tango, is my own favorite, but each song is part of a mosaic.”
