The outstanding complete recording of Astor Piazzolla’s tango opera ‘Maria de Buenos Aires’, sung by the mezzo-soprano Mariana Rewerski accompanied by the ensemble Triade. Astor Piazzolla and the Uruguayan writer Horacio Ferrer first met in Buenos Aires in the 1950s the idea for a musical homage developed from their mutual passion for tango. Ferrer wrote the libretto to Mara de Buenos Aires. When Astor Piazzolla set this “tango operta” to music he typically ignored genre limitations and treated the surrealistic libretto to a kaleidoscope-like journey through theatre and music history. Piazzolla created a mixture of chamber opera, revue and oratorio and the various narrative forms and musical genres he used all circled round an energetic, pulsing heart the tango. It is the story of this dance that is told in this “little opera”, inseparably linked with the city Buenos Aires a story about stagnation, demise and resurrection, personified by “Mara de Buenos Aires”. The story of Mara’s life, from childhood and death to resurrection, serves as a foil for the story about tango and the emotions it expresses: desperation, melancholy and longing but also passion, abandon and pride.
Personnel: Mariana Rewerski (mezzo-soprano), Christophe Rody (transverse flute), Alain Chavaillaz (clarinet), Marc Paquin (violin), Orfilia Saiz Vega (cello), Atena Carte (piano)