Photo by Mayra Beltran

Houston Grand Opera’s To Cross the Face of the Moon (Cruzar la Cara de la Luna) succeeded on all fronts in its four sold-out weekend performances at Talento Bilingüe de Houston.

As a bold first-time fusion of two musical forms, mariachi and opera — check.

As a means of reaching new audiences with HGO’s programming — check.

As a reflection of Houston’s multicultural character and populace — check.

As a thoughtful commemoration of this year’s bicentennial of Mexican independence and centennial of the Mexican revolution — check.

José “Pepe” Martinez, longtime music director of the famed Mariachi Vargas, composed the appealing score, demonstrating sufficient melody, character and variety to support a musical theater piece — from plaintive, folklike ballads to rousing Latin rhythms to a lilting waltz.

Veteran Broadway and opera director Leonard Foglia (Master Class, On Golden Pond) penned the poignant libretto, its song lyrics in collaboration with Martinez. Foglia also supplied the simple yet effective staging, sustaining an emotional key that was earnest but never cloying.

The work’s plot asserts universal appeal in exploring three generations of a family divided by conflicting cultural ties. As patriarch Laurentino nears the end of his life, his middle-aged son Mark and Mark’s young adult daughter, Diana, seek answers to unresolved questions from Laurentinos’ past. In flashbacks, we see how Laurentino first came from Mexico to Texas as a young man seeking work — leaving his wife and son at home to await his occasional visits.

Renata’s decision to strike out with her son in hopes of reuniting the family leads to a tragic turn in the flashback story. In the present-day action, Mark tries to reunite Laurentino with the estranged son who is unaware his father is still living and to realize Laurentino’s dream of returning to his hometown in Mexico.

The libretto uses the migrations of Monarch butterflies, returning each year to Laurentino’s childhood home, as an apt poetic metaphor for the family’s past and present journeys.

The uniformly strong voices ensured that the score was heard to best advantage. Octavio Moreno made a warm and sympathetic Laurentino and handled the shifts from frail old age to youthful vigor persuasively. Cecilia Duarte sang Renata with intensity and conviction.

Brian Shircliffe conveyed Mark’s generous and searching nature. Brittany Wheeler’s bright and eager Diana and David Guzman’s tough, skeptical Rafael were among the other standouts, and the supporting roles were likewise deftly rendered.

The 15-member ensemble Mariachi Aztlan, of the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, supplied the onstage accompaniment, playing with expertise and zest throughout.

Beyond the well-meaning goal of increasing cross-cultural understanding, To Cross the Face of the Moon evinced more artistic validity than many of the recent spate of genre-mixing music-theater works, on Broadway and elsewhere.

Kudos to HGO general director Anthony Freud and all the artists involved for taking a chance on something different and realizing the concept so expertly.