Yara Ballet

“A series of beautiful Spanish scenes, in front of which the tragedy of the dispossessed will develop. Portinari’s skies reveal the sufferers’ hope and anguish. The scenes he painted are worth the show…”

Marcos André, journalist

Preserving the tradition of the Russian ballet, Colonel W. de Basil tried to enrich and renew his repertoire, incorporating bold, modernist conceptions from local artists. Yara, the first Brazilian ballet to definitively enter the international circuit, stemmed from a talk at the box of the São Paulo Municipal Theater, in 1942, between the Russian director and poet Guilherme de Almeida. The idea was to compose a plot with a Brazilian theme, at the same time transmitting a human, universal message. The argument was commissioned from the poet himself; the music, to maestro Francisco Mignone; the sets, to Candido Portinari.”

Talking to a reporter at the Palace Hotel hall in June 3, 1942, Colonel W. de Basil expressed his enthusiasm for Brazilian artists:

“In Brazil, I discovered extraordinary artistic values. I met notable writers, musicians, and painters. And when I appreciated their art, each isolated in its genre, I couldn’t hold back the desire to reunite them.”

The richness of our folklore, which motivated the theme for the Yara ballet, surprised him:

“Brazilian folklore was another of the many surprises I had in your country. Greek mythology, so rich in classical motifs, could not offer a theme as suggestive and impressive as the Yara legend. Being a unification of two distinct influences—the Sun, Guaracy, and the Moon, Jacy—, Yara acts upon men and things, with the temporary predominance of each element.”

Portinari was the first renowned Brazilian artist to portray in canvases the suffering of Northeastern people victim of the drought. In 1944, he painted the Dispossessed series, causing great commotion in Brazil and abroad.

In the same year, 1944, Portinari was commissioned to create the sets and costume design of the Yara ballet, going back to a subject that was already part of his human and aesthetical musings: drought in the Northeast. In all, he conceived five sets and forty costumes, certainly his most important set work.

Art critic Antonio Bento also refers to an important panel exhibited in the interval of the two acts:

“Besides problems of a specific static order, [Portinari] started being interested in the social tragedy of these sufferers, persecuted by a Greek fate. And he started making his larger compositions, such as this impressive panel that appears in Yara, separating acts 1 and 2.”

From this legend, poet Guilherme de Almeida composed the argument for the Yara ballet, transcribed in the São Paulo Municipal Theatre program in its official premiere, in 1946:

ACT I
SCENE I

Typical corner of Brazilian Northeast. A time of bounty. The WATERS run free and easy through rivers and tributaries. It is night and the moon is shining. YARA rests. JACY, the Moon, wakes her and they dance in seduction. The night grows pale. It will soon be dawn. There comes, omnipotent, striking his rays, GUARACY, the Sun. YARA, in fear, refuses to be courted by the king of the stars and runs away with JACY.

SCENE II

Broad daylight. Children rest in the Mediterranean light. All of nature is a joyous, bountiful feast. The working people merrily celebrate the abundance. In a concise, but complete manner, the whole fundamental theme of ‘Bumba-meu-boi’ is exposed (the arrival of the OX, the pact with the COWBOY, the killing, the slaughtering, the resurrection, the coming of the DONKEY, and the black BETROTHED…), evolving the rhythmic plot until it culminates with the colorful chaos of the final frevo.

ACT II
SCENE I

Behold GUARACY, enamored with YARA, coming in, verdant and triumphant, offering the flexible water spirit, the jewels of the rainbow, with its reflection lights up in the liquid scales. And YARA gives herself sweetly to GUARACY, who, little by little, dominates her until he vanquishes her.”

SCENE II

The frightening prelude of drought. Fearful, the first wave of DISPOSSESSED will flee. But they still hold on. There comes the precatory procession, pleading clemency to the sky. An illuminated figure—the MYSTIC—incites the people to stay, to have faith, to believe that bounty will come again, in the generosity of the land, in the mercy of God. The MYSTIC promises and, miraculously, a hope appears in space in the shape of a rainbow, which soon vanishes. Then comes disbelief, the mob’s revolt, and the martyrdom of the Mystic. The DISPOSSESSED leave. But, in the delusion of the MYSTIC, who stays behind hurt by sunstroke and glued to the scourged land, YARA reappears in a mirage and, by the concave hands of the martyr, gives a drink to those who have faith.”