- Directed by Ella Marchment
- Composed by Astor Piazzolla
- A Curious Invitation
- 2016
Synopsis
María de Buenos Aires is a surreal operetta, with music by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla – the creator of tango nuevo – and words by Uruguayan poet Horacio Ferrer.
Mingle with the lowlife of old Buenos Aires: thieves, card sharps, pimps, and whores as the Narrator relates the tragic story of María – a prostitute with a curse in her voice, born in the slums one day when God was drunk.
María is seduced by the rhythms of the tango and soon becomes the most sorcerous singer and lover in all of Buenos Aires. But her fatal passion arouses the wrath of the languishing Piazzolla, who, driven to madness by María’s unrelenting ways, conspires with a group of robbers and brothel madams to murder her.
After her death, her shadow returns to haunt the sordid streets that she once walked, and only then does Piazzolla realise the error of his ways.
María de Buenos Aires is a modern-day Passion Play, full of religious allusions and black humour, set to a soundtrack of tangos, milongas, and waltzes.
Wine Spice
★★★★★
María de Buenos Aires is an atmospherically charged performance with excellent singing and a wonderful live band. I was gripped throughout.
– Warren Edwardes, Wine Spice
Bachtrack
★★★★
I deeply love Piazzolla’s music, and to get a whole evening of it performed this well – and in the most bizarre of settings – was a treat.
– David Karlin, Bachtrack
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