Part Night of the Iguana, part White Lotus (sans a killing), and all music, dance, and culture, the Festival Paax GNP at Cancún’s Hotel Xcaret Arte on the Mayan Riviera more than lives up to its tagline, “Vivir es increíble” (Living is amazing). Founded and directed by conductor Alondra de la Parra, the fete seems poised to become an irresistible summer destination.
The festival, in its third iteration, ran June 26 – July 7. The concerts were held in beautiful theaters on the grounds of the all-inclusive resort, and the quality of the performances was first-class. With her accustomed panache, de la Parra, who has conducted some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, led the 100-musician-strong resident ensemble, The Impossible Orchestra, which she founded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The band also accompanied dancers in two evenings of programs curated by acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. And while this year’s symphonic programs spanned works from Mozart to Francis Poulenc, Arturo Márquez, and Gabriela Ortiz, there were also smaller events such as a candlelight piano concert and several late-night programs.
Dubbed “Paax Darkside,” those evenings were anything but shadowy. On our first night, June 29, we enjoyed an eight-course meal paired with eight different wines sourced from France, Spain, Mexico, and beyond. The two-hour dining experience proved memorable, and we were able to walk off some of the calories on the long trek to the Salón Diego, where we were treated to a concert dubbed “Ecos Latinos.”
Led by Pacho Flores, who’s been called the Paganini of the trumpet and records for Deutsche Grammophon, the band — Leo Rondón on guitar, Gonzalo Grau on piano, Freddy Adrian on double bass, and Raphaël Pannier on drums — absolutely rocked. And si, si, folks were dancing in the aisles. When the ensemble was joined by an additional 13 musicians, including more horns than a Mahler symphony requires, Flores and crew gave new meaning to the word “jamming.”
After a day spent touring and taking a pottery class, we made our way once again to the Diego Room on June 30, this time to take in the glories of “Wheeldon’s World.” And what a world it was! Wheeldon, one of today’s best-known choreographers, thanks in part to his work on Broadway, has an artistic relationship with de la Parra that dates back some 15 years, when both were living in New York. Wheeldon had just formed his own troupe, Morphoses, while de la Parra had founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas. The two groups collaborated under a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and their work together continues. In fact, Wheeldon has been curator of the dance portion of this festival since its beginning.
With de la Parra leading The Impossible Orchestra onstage, the program, featuring principal dancers from major companies from around the world, opened with “Diamonds,” an excerpt from George Balanchine’s Jewels. Set to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3, with the haunting bassoon theme of the Andante movement played here by Virya Quesada, the dance was a study in sumptuous lines and beautifully performed by New York City Ballet’s Unity Phelan and The National Ballet of Canada’s Ben Rudisin.
There were many other highlights, such as Wheeldon’s ballroom pas de deux from Act 2 of his 2013 story ballet Cinderella. Dutch National Ballet principals Anna Tsygankova and Giorgi Potskhishvili embodied the music of Sergei Prokofiev, their partnership teeming with acrobatically buoyant lifts.
Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance) (from 2002) featured former New York City Ballet principals Lauren Lovette and Robbie Fairchild. A distillation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic 1945 musical, set to “The Carousel Waltz” and “If I Loved You,” the work saw the dancers moving from cautious caresses to audacious lifts, with the couple at one point sitting and facing the orchestra to take in the sumptuous music-making. The duo also danced Wheeldon’s wonderful Mercurial Manoeuvres (2000), set to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with pianist Lilit Grigoryan and trumpeter Manuel Blanco adding lushness to this work teeming with pirouettes.
Another standout was “This Bitter Earth” from Wheeldon’s Five Movements, Three Repeats (2012), set to a remix of Dinah Washington’s soulful performance of the title tune (composed by Clyde Otis) and to Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight,” an elegiac six-minute study in minimalism. Bavarian State Ballet principals Madison Young and Jakob Feyferlik moved as one, he mastering the difficult partnering yet showcasing his charge’s dramatic presence, all angled and muscular.
No ballet gala is complete without fan favorites, and this program delivered. Young and Feyferlik performed the famous pas de deux from Act 2 of Giselle, with Karen Foster adding luster on viola. Young wowed with quick jumps and even speedier takeoffs into the air, and Feyferlik executed impressive variations.
Duets from Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty and Don Quixote were also on view, with principals from The Royal Ballet — an ebullient Marianela Nuñez and a sturdy William Bracewell in the former — deploying numerous fish dives (appropriate for the seaside setting) to the swelling strings of Tchaikovsky. Tsygankova and Potskhishvili pulled out all the stops in Don Q, the latter mercurial and commanding in his variations, his partner less assured, however, in her fouettés.
The evening’s world premiere, Acts 9:18, was made by Paul McGill, a Broadway actor and choreographer. Set to the Adagio movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, again ably performed by Grigoryan, the duet saw Phelan and Rudisin make nice work of their unisons in a piece punctuated by gentleness and longing.
From the sublime to the even more sublime, the concert on the next night, July 1, was spiced with jazz, improvisation, and candles galore. Pianist Thomas Enhco’s “Candlepaax” recital featured hundreds of battery-operated votives surrounding the musician and proved a romp through musical idioms.
A kind of Bill Evans meets Keith Jarrett and an unhinged Mozart, Enhco began the concert with a meditative swing-like piece before launching into an extended riff on Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are.” Announcing the works from the stage, he then went on flights of pianistic fancy, from John Lennon’s “Love” to “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (made famous by Elvis Presley) to a very elastic rendering of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” among other well-known hits.
Enhco even gave a nod to John Cage by dampening the piano’s strings at one point, but when asked to do an Italian encore by an audience member, the Frenchman, somewhat flummoxed and unable to come up with one, finally settled on a lilting “Autumn Leaves,” originally known in French as “Les feuilles mortes.”
After dinner, and with no time for dessert or, even sadder, after-dinner drinks, we hustled over to the Forum, an 800-seat outdoor amphitheater (not unlike The Ford in Los Angeles), where Natalia Lafourcade would be holding musical court for her “Darkside” concert.
The 40-year-old Mexican singer-songwriter and multi-Grammy Award winner straddles various genres, from Latin pop to rock, folk, bossa nova, and alternative music. Opening the concert, Lafourcade, strumming a mean guitar herself, performed with a number of musicians from Flores’s group before grooving out with guitarist Rondón, the duo exchanging musical bits as well as admiring glances.
Members of The Impossible Orchestra also joined Lafourcade, including harpist Kristi Shade and trumpeter David Enhco (Thomas’s brother), bringing a rich sound to accent Lafourcade’s already supple voice. This was full Lafourcade, who, by the way, returns to the Hollywood Bowl Sept. 6–7 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Ticking through her list of hits, the anti-diva (or so she seemed, clad in a simple long black dress, her dark hair covered by a turban-like hat) sang an empowering “Hasta la Raíz” (To the root), the title track of her 2015 Latin Grammy-winning album. A heartfelt jaunt that speaks to the importance of home, family, and love, the tune struck a chord with the audience, many of whom sang along.
Dipping into that same album, Lafourcade crooned “Nunca es suficiente” (It’s never enough), a rhythmically infectious love song, before belting out “Mexicana hermosa” (Beautiful Mexican), a celebration of Mexican culture and identity. Wrapping things up with a rousing rendition of “Tú sí sabes quererme” (You do know how to love me) in near call-and-response fashion, Lafourcade, as she usually does, sang and conquered.
A marvelous way to end an evening, we were ready to do it all over again the next night, July 2, which we did, watching the enticing Quinteto Nuevo Tango, also at the Forum. A group of Frenchmen, including Enhco on piano and Félicien Brut on bandoneon, these terrific musicians paid homage to the late king of nuevo tango, Astor Piazzolla.
So much culture, so little time, but with Hurricane Beryl barreling toward landfall at the festival’s very location, it was time to leave. Alas, we were going to miss a host of other concerts with big names that included soprano Pretty Yende and tenor Michael Fabiano, who were leading a festive opera gala as well as a night of Broadway tunes. Still, we were grateful for the time we had at the festival, which couldn’t have been more fabulous. Indeed, with world-class performers, brilliant programming, and incomparable surroundings, it was above all else the terrific people both on and off the stage who helped make this an unforgettable experience.
