Fiery affairs, devouring lust, disastrous jealousy, broken hearts, brutal longing, contempt, rancor, and indifference in lyrics that border on the kitsch and dazzlingly beautiful melodies – these are the exuberantly romantic songs written by Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963). They captivated choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras in the mid-eighties, and two decades later in 2004, GRUPO CORPO celebrated the all-time greatest genius of Cuban music, opening for the first time since 1992 an exception to the house rule that the dance company would only dance to soundtracks especially composed for them. The result is a 38-minute ballet simply called Lecuona, an infatuating sequence of pas-de-deux followed by a single ensemble number created by Rodrigo Pederneiras to twelve aching love songs and one Waltz by the famous composer of Siboney. Lecuona has a singular character among all the other ballets by GRUPO CORPO.
