Astor Piazzolla’s 1968 tango opera “María de Buenos Aires” is certainly a sight to see with diva María (Soprano Kelly Guerra) dressed in a beautiful red dress, singing in Spanish outside the setting of a beautiful Argentine Cathedral.
Piazzolla’s “María” is certainly not a typical opera, breaking many of the conventional means by telling such a story. A small ensemble that includes a guitar, bandoneon and piano certainly helped promote the Argentinian Nuevo Tango sentiment.
The honest truth is that diva María did not sing as much as a lead soprano usually does. This, combined with the fact that most of the story was mostly told through a non-singing oration by the Narrator “El Duende” (Played by Kristen Chávez), certainly made for a very interesting evening on the opening night of Jan. 31.
The opera began with Narrator El Duende setting the stage, speaking on the state of affairs in 1960s Buenos Aires. María was then introduced, standing ominously as the statue of her namesake Mary, mother of Christ, outside of the Cathedral.
María did not sing immediately, though, and the audience was left to speculate about her intentions while a new character was introduced. El Payador (Played by Baritone Laureano Quant), dressed in a clerical collar, sang a prologue that eloquently painted Buenos Aires and foreshadowed the opera’s themes of desire, fate and the weaving of identity through the tapestry that is the tango.
Laureano Quant’s performance as El Payador was nothing short of spectacular. His voice echoed throughout Capitol Theater with the power of Milnes and the tenderness of Dieskau.
María then stepped off of her statue’s pedestal and sang in the somewhat confusing, yet poetic vanguardism of librettist Horacio Ferrer. Combined with Kelly Guerra’s incredible performance as María, the opening captured the morose yet fashionable nature of the tragic Argentinian story.
A group of six dancers entered the stage, performing the tango to the famous Aria “Yo Soy María,” while María danced on the top of a bar echoing Salome’s dance for Tetrarch. The dancers then turned on María and murdered her out of their desire.
Narrator El Duende then gave a eulogy, and the scene shifted. María had died but still lived on in hell, but her hell was that of a sick and twisted Buenos Aires.
This is when the opera became very peculiar. From the psychoanalysts who were diagnosing María to the small girl who represented an untainted identity of a woman, it would have certainly been hard to determine a story if it had not been for the wonderful direction of stage director Frances Rabalais.
The second part flew by quickly, though, moving rapidly from song to song. Everyone was going crazy, María was now dressed in a black gown, and the dancers had a larger part to play.
The opera concluded to thunderous applause, and the small ensemble and cast were received quickly by a standing ovation. The performance was nothing short of a wonderful way to finish a scandalous but incredible evening.
