‘Maria de Buenos Aires’ Operita – Tango (reprise)

The rough, passionated history of 'The Tango'

Composer: Astor Piazzolla
Libretto: Horacio Ferrer

“ Maria de Buenos Aires is the most ambitious work of Astor Piazzolla in which we will find all elements of his other compositions. You can describe the theme as a courtship between the 'soul' of Buenos Aires and a complaint against everybody who wants to exploit this soul for his own commercial benefit. Piazzolla and his script writer Horacio Ferrer are telling their story by using all South American rhythms and poetry which has a strong connection with the 'Tango'. Atmosphere, emotion and rhythms are very important elements of this opera.

Summary

It's the most important hour. El Duende ('the spirit') is waking up his loved one 'Maria' from the death. 'Maria': she is the soul of Buenos Aires, she is The Tango. She is the child of all those who came to the Argentinean capital to look for fortune and who now live their hopeless days in the dark and desperate backyards. Maria speaks and understands their melancholic language of sadness and sorrow. She lives during the night. Only in the night the Argentineans open their hearts, only in the night they are dancing the Tango. Tango-Maria is becoming a mania. She is a welcome guest at the dancing-hall's all over the world. But suddenly her time is over. She is murdered by a shot of the 'Bandoneon' who always accompanied her.
Her soul is going to the underworld, only her shapeless body continues to exist. Not for the locals but for the tourists. Tango only for the commerce. 'The spirit' can not bear it any longer. He fertilizes the empty shape with new inspiration. She will get a lot of descendants. A lot of new 'Maria's'. The Tango, the real Tango will survive and have a new glorious period.


Participants

The Argentinean Bandoneon-master Walter Castro.
Musical director (and pianist) Pablo Ziegler. Ziegler played together with Astor Piazzolla in his legendary 'Quinteto Tango Nuevo'. Now Ziegler has his own group which will be the heart of the orchestra in this production. Also the three most important soloists are coming from Argentina: Vanessa Quiroz, Juan Vitali and Jose Angel Trelles
Because it is a Dutch/Argentinean co production the other artists are coming from The Netherlands: the director, the 5 other musicians and the dancers(some of them with international backgrounds).
Maria de Buenos Aires combines the best artistic staff and performers of both countries. The performance is chosen in the special 'jubilee' program of the Royal Theatre in The Hague which exists 200 years in 2004. Directly after the Dutch/Belgian Tour ' Maria The Buenos Aires' is invited to play at the famous 'Spring Festival' in Budapest. Between 10th and 26th of September 2004 there will be the 2nd tour of the production. Maria de Buenos Aires is recommended to all real theatre-, music- and dancelovers.

Musical directing / piano: Pablo Ziegler
Theatredirecting: Wim Trompet for many years part of the artistic staff at the Dutch Opera house in Amsterdam. Director of productions in The Netherlands and other countries. At the Pacific Opera Victoria he causes a sensational success with his version of Alban Bergs 'Wozzeck'.
Choreography: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, young Columbian/Belgian choreographer. She won already a lot of prices and danced in all European countries. As a choreographer she worked at the Dutch Scapino Ballet and our Dutch National Ballet.
Costumes: Aziz Bekkaoui very successful young Moroccan/Dutch couturier, proteacute;geacute; of Paco Raban in Paris
Decors: Eric Goossens theatre and tv designer
Light: Uri Rapaport best Dutch light designer
Introduction/dramaturge: Gustavo Pazos producer NPS Radio 4
Basic idea / producer: Tassy Schmid and Theaterburo Schmid/APA
Maria de Buenos Aires will be played in the Spanish-language with Dutch subtitles.

• www.pabloziegler.com

• www.buenosairestando.com

• www.festivalcity.hu