On November 22, at Don’t Tell Mama, Stephanie Trudeau, who was my colleague in the Arts Project of Cherry Grove’s “Rainbow Connection” this past summer, introduced us to out lesbian singer Chavela Vargas (1919-2012), who was born in Costa Rica, but made her mark singing Mexican ranchera music. Trudeau lent a plangent alto to a dozen of Vargas’ songs of love and more, in her show “Becoming Chavela.” Many were compositions by Vargas’ musical mentor Jose Alfredo Jimenez and another third were written by women. Trudeau grew up in the Bronx hearing, thanks to her Puerto Rican mother, a great deal of Latin American music and some of the most popular songs were Mexican.
Assisted by Ben Lapidus on guitar, Stephanie began with ecstatic renditions of Maria Grever’s “What a Difference a Day Makes/Cuando Vuelva A Tu Lado,” in English and Spanish, and Alvaro Carillo’s erotic “Sabor A Mi” (the taste of me), complete with dance interlude.
Ranchera is traditional vocal Mariachi music, usually sung by men, but also sung by Chavela, who became known as “the lesbian chanteuse,” performing wearing a jorongo (poncho), as Stephanie did, and pants. Jimenez liked the way Vargas sang his songs and Trudeau started these with “the torchiest of torch songs,” “Corazon, Corazon,” and proceeded to lilting paeans to tequila “Tu Recuerdo Y Yo” (Your Memory and Me) and “En El Ultimo Trago (the Last Round).
Stephanie sang a penetrating “Noche De Ronda,” Maria Teresa Lara’s song to an unfaithful lover, before returning to Jimenez for “Ojala Que Te Vaya Bonito,” which Vargas had sung as a farewell to Frida Kahlo—“el gran amor de mi vida” (the great love of my life)—when Kahlo died.
In Cuba, Vargas became enamored of a beautiful courtesan, for whom she wrote the sexy song “Macorina,” “the lesbian anthem of Latin America,” which she named for her love, and to which Trudeau brought deep emotion, while Lapidus eschewed the guitar in favor of the percussion instrument the güiro, a gourd scraped by a piece of metal. Vargas returned to Mexico, where she sang at Elizabeth Taylor and Mike Todd’s wedding, and connected with Ava Gardner.
Stephanie moved us with Jimenez’s “Un Mundo Raro,” (a Strange World), Vargas’ lament for a decade-and-a-half lost to alcoholism. Vargas began singing, for the first time sober, at age 72 and, with the assistance of filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, revived her career and made her Carnegie Hall debut at age 83. After Jimenez’s “Soledad,” Trudeau celebrated Vargas’ return to performing with a triumphant account of his “Volver, Volver,” which got some of the audience singing along. She concluded with a dulcet, understated “Besame Mucho,” Consuelo Velazquez’s famous bolero, which also became a sing-along.
Stephanie Trudeau repeats “Becoming Chavela” at Don’t Tell Mama on December 30 at 7 pm.