Sparks flew in downtown Mancos Saturday afternoon for this month’s rendition of Grand Summer Nights.
The August event was themed “Heavy Metal.” It followed on the heels of July’s burro extravaganza, and starred a handful of blacksmith-artists showcasing their craft.
Saturday’s festivities also coincided with the Mancos Valley Summer Brewfest at Cottonwood Park, sponsored by Mancos Brewing Co. it featured music, beers, and classic cars.
Grand Summer Nights had the usual streetside entertainment, including gourd artistry, Navajo tacos, and carriage rides through town.
And sequestered in Pioneer Park behind the Mancos Opera House, blacksmiths and welders forged and hammered away, using metal donated by Belt Salvage to craft ornate masterpieces.
Dave Root from Wild Mountain Forge demonstrated his knife-crafting skills, with tongs and kiln at the ready.
He started blacksmithing over a decade ago, he said, and a few years ago studied traditional Japanese bladesmithing, which is now his style.
“They use very high carbon, very pure steels,” he said.
With these pure steels, “you can get a very, very fine grain structure, and that very fine grain structure allows you to get a very fine cutting edge,” he added.
Another of the afternoon’s spotlights was a preview performance for the comic opera coming to Mancos in spring 2020– which happens to be titled “The Blacksmith.”
Originally a French opera from the 1700s, “The Blacksmith” is being updated to Mancos in the 1890s. It is being developed and performed by Washington D.C.-based Opera Lafayette.
Saturday’s preview was presented by Ryan Brown, a violinist and the director of Opera Lafayette, and Mancos music teacher Andrew Saletta on guitar. They played snippets of tunes and narrated parts of the plot to a crowd gathered on the patio at Fahrenheit Coffee Roasters.
It’s a comic opera, Brown said, and so is very similar to a musical.
“The director and I have been channeling our grandmothers,” he said of the process of updating the opera to 19th century Mancos.
Opera Lafayette performers will be rehearsing in Mancos for the last few weeks of April 2020, with performances set to happen April 30, May 2, and May 3. The first show at the end of April will include student and community musicians.
Proceeds will benefit the Opera House and Mancos Creative District.
“I’m thrilled,” Saletta said. He’s excited to connect the performance to local Mancos history, and give his students the chance to participate in an opera.
After the Mancos debut, Opera Lafayette will bring the show to the East Coast, to be performed – in its updated form – at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and in New York.
Those interested in volunteering for the show or joining the community performance as a musician are invited to a potluck dinner at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Mount Lookout Grange, 680 Grand Ave.
For more information, contact Anne Beach, director of the Creative District, at anne@mancoscreativedistrict.com.
ealvero@the-journal.com