The historic silver camino of Querétaro runs by Jardin Zenea, a beautiful garden-plaza near the centre of the Old City. This was once another wealthy mining town, like Guanajuato. Across the jardin stands a magnificent Mexican Baroque church with strong Neoclassical features—San Francisco Church. This is our concert location for tonight. The facade of this baroque edifice is a little simpler in design than the oft overly-ornate embellishments of its contemporaneous buildings. High above the large wooden church doors, a frieze of St James (here St Iago) slaying his enemies on horseback and flying cape pays tribute to the eponymous saint of the city.
Legend goes that St James had appeared here in the sky to local residents upon the founding of the city. His apparition was also accompanied by a giant Cross. This led to a particular local devotion to the saint. Similarly, we see a parallel between St James’ “presence” in this Mexican city and his patronage of Spain as its first evangelist. And, here in Mexico, local pre-colonial beliefs of indigenous peoples melded with “the new religion” of their conquerors. Syncretism describes the phenomenon of Aztec, or pre-conquest, practices becoming an integrated part of Mexican-Catholic ritual. One such example of syncretism is the three-day dance festival that takes place on the small plaza beside San Francisco every September. This festival synthesizes Aztec dance and devotion to St James and the apparition of the Holy Cross in the sky.
We walked from St Francisco to Plaza de Independencia, a large square lined by neatly manicured Indian laurels. By the plaza is the Palacio de la Corredigora—the “governor’s house” of sorts during Mexico’s 300-year colonial period. This house became a gathering place for independence conspirators in the 19th century as both the Corredigor himself and his wife Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez hosted “parties” on the second floor of their residence that were really pro-independence meetings. Today, to commemorate the Corredigor and his wife, their statues stand in the courtyard of the Palacio. Around them, three murals commemorate the figures and events of the 1810 Mexican War of Independence.
We also visited the ex-convent of St Augustine which is now an art gallery. You can still see the beautiful moorish-baroque murals—tessellations of dusty orange and red— covering the walls and vaulted ceiling of its cloisters. Another exemplary edifice of many architectural styles is the Templo de Santa Rosa de Viterbo. The flying buttresses are a Gothic revival, its exterior murals and bell tower are a Moorish masterwork, and its dome is distinctly Baroque. Inside the parish, we were greeted by dazzling Baroque side altars with floral embellishments. It was a sight to behold!
Our concert in the San Francisco Church was an exhilarating experience. We were able to focus on certain performance details such as particularities in phrasing and dynamics that Gabriel had emphasized during the rehearsal earlier in the afternoon. The resonance of the nave was incredible too — 4 seconds of reverberation. Our voices quite literally shook the walls of this cavernous space and lingered in the air long after we had breathed out our last chords. The Allegri Miserere took particular advantage of this acoustic feature by placing soloists in the transects, near the entrance at the end of the aisle, and on the balcony. This placement created a varied soundscape and antiphonal effects that enhanced our performance. There was a little girl sitting in the front pew who looked absolutely captivated by our music. To see her eyes light up and her enthusiastic clapping at the end of every piece meant the world to me and reminded me of why we perform: to bring joy and beauty to our audiences.
To end our evening, we performed not one but two encores. I don’t think the audience would have minded a third.
Joanna Zhang ‘21
Photos courtesy of Joanna Zhang ‘21