Comunidad Isla de la Piedra

When we arrived in Mazatlan we saw posters everywhere advertising a Beatles tribute concert at El Teatro Angela Peralta, a fully restored 19th century opera house. Given my love of the Fab Four and our desire to visit the opera house, we went to the box office and snapped up tickets for the January 9 show.

The opera house is a beautiful piece of architecture with a facade graced by four Roman columns. The theater originally opened in 1874 and, while it operated continuously until 1964, poor maintenance caused it to fall into disrepair and, eventually, ruin. In 1975, it was flooded by Hurricane Olivia and was for a time used as a parking garage with a giant ficus tree growing at center stage. In 1985, the city had the building slated for demolition, but a group of concerned citizens staged the first Mazatlan Cultural Festival in the ruined and roofless structure, complete with a symphony orchestra performing in front of the dilapidated stage and under the ficus tree at it's center. The grand lady was saved!

Through public and private funding, the building was restored to it's former glory and was declared a national historical site in 1990.

Attending a concert there is a treat. The hall has only eight hundred forty one seats, and there's not a bad one in the house. Acoustics are outstanding and the restored cast iron balconies project the history of the venue.

It's a must see for any visitor to this city.

Now, about the show. Last year Brenda and I attended a "Beatles" concert in Vancouver that included orchestration provided by the VSO. Admittedly, we were a little spoiled by that one and I guess our expectations for last night's show were pretty high.

As it turns out, the band on stage this night, Grupo Help!, was formed in Mexico City in 1985 by three Beatles-loving brothers. During the show, they covered three eras of the Fab Four's career, and did an admirable job with the music and hitting the right notes vocally. But there was no disguising their Spanish accents.

She loves you, ja, ja, ja....

Jesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away...

They even managed to perform one of my favorites from 1967's Sargento Pimienta, A Day In The Life.

And despite the Latin rather than Liverpudlian accents and a few annoying technical glitches, the show was very entertaining and well worth the 500 peso price of admission.

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