El Fantasma and Tin Tan: Genre Hybridity and Musical Nostalgia in Fernando Cortés’s El Fantasma de la opereta (1959)

Extract

The mid- to late-1950s was a precarious period in Mexican filmmaking. As Mexican cinema moved away from the so-called época de oro (Golden Age), varying constructions of mexicanidad—the cultural identity of the Mexican people—faded in prominence. Meanwhile, the challenges of urbanization and modernization led to a shift in film production. The Golden Age had been defined by films reflecting a multivalent national identity, particularly in genres such as the comedia ranchera (ranch comedy) and the revolutionary melodrama. But by the mid- 1950s, this focus shifted to the cosmopolitan modernization overtaking the country. This included the incorporation of foreign directors, actors, and musicians, and even the reinterpretation of foreign genres. Such cosmopolitanism was concurrent with, and indeed contributed to, the construction of mexicanidad. As the established genres of the Golden Age lost steam, however, Mexican audiences preferred to see new representations that reflected contemporary needs. Film consequently moved away from the strict representations of a national identity and toward a new era characterized, as Ignacio Sánchez Prado has noted, “by increased cosmopolitanism and uneven yet considerable economic development.”¹ It was in this heated climate that the 1959 film El Fantasma de la opereta (The Phantom of the Operetta), directed by Fernando Cortés with a screenplay by Gilberto Martínez Solares, emerged.