Immigration is a national hot-button issue. The topic takes to the stage locally as the San Diego Symphony performs Tres Minutos on Friday, November 22 at the downtown Jacobs Music Center.
In partnership with Border Angels, the symphony will present this chamber opera by composer Nicolás Lell Benavides and librettist Marella Martin Koch. The opera imagines the story of Diego and Nila, a brother and sister who share DNA but not citizenship. In the story, Diego is deported, leaving Nila behind.
“This is a story about finding a way forward in a circumstance you did not create yourself,” Koch says. “You’ll feel what Diego feels, what Nila feels.”
Border Angels is a 30-year-old nonprofit that provides life-saving supplies to immigrants working toward asylum and migrants working in the U.S.
Before the symphony performance, Border Angels is screening Love Has No Borders, a 20-minute documentary about immigrants living in shelters awaiting asylum meetings.
The documentary will run three times (6:10, 6:35 and 7 p.m.) in the lower-level multipurpose room. The opera begins at 7:30 p.m. A post-concert talkback is scheduled for 9 p.m.
In anticipation of changing national immigration policy, Love Has No Borders aims to destigmatize stereotypes.
“You’re being told a message about criminals,” Border Angels Executive Director Jesus Gonzalez says. “We’re saying ‘No, that’s a mom who has two children, and that’s a dad, that’s a son and father.’”
Tres Minutos was inspired by real-life experiences with Border Angels’ now defunct Door of Hope program, which reunited families separated at the border for three minutes.
“That person who saw [Door of Hope] was so moved that they used their creativity to come up with this opera,” Gonzalez says.
Border Angels is also raising funds to support its Water Drop program, which leaves drinking water and non-perishable supplies for immigrants near the U.S.-Mexico border, and other programs.
Tickets for the show are $35. For ticket information, go to: Tres Minutos SDSun
