Hatuey: Memory of Fire

Hatuey: Memory of Fire is a bold and breathtaking opera that fuses Afro-Cuban rhythms with Yiddish melodies in a sweeping tale of love, identity, and resistance. Set in a Havana nightclub in 1931, the story follows Oscar, a young Jewish writer and refugee from Ukraine, who falls for Tinima, a fiery Taino singer and revolutionary. As Oscar writes a poem about Hatuey, the legendary Indigenous chief who led a rebellion against Spanish colonizers in 1511, their lives begin to intertwine with the past, blurring boundaries between eras, cultures, and struggles for freedom.

With a genre-defying score by Grammy-winner Frank London and a libretto by Elise Thoron, the opera is performed in English, Spanish, Yiddish, and Taino, and brought to life by a dynamic ensemble of singers, dancers, and musicians. Maija Garcia’s choreography adds a powerful visual language to the music, seamlessly connecting scenes and centuries through fluid, evocative movement. Hatuey: Memory of Fire is more than a love story—it’s a moving meditation on displacement, defiance, and the search for homeland, resonating deeply in today’s world.