A patron responds to the recent performance of Maria de Buenos Aires

On February 10 and 11, in the Carlos Alvarez Theater of the Tobin Center, OPERA San Antonio presented Maria de Buenos Aires, the tango opera written by Argentine composer Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992) in 1968. Maria was the first contemporary opera to be performed by the young San Antonio opera company, which staged its first production in 2014. It was also the company’s first opera in Spanish.

For the production, the entire Alvarez Theater was transformed into a moody and evocative Buenos Aires cabaret, with strings of Christmas tree lights hung across the ceiling and large posters tacked onto the walls. Three sides of the theater were lined with structures that included two balconies and a large bar outfitted with bottles of wine and liquor. The singers and dancers performed from the bar and the two balconies. But they also used the central space of the theater, moving and weaving around the bar tables where audience members were seated. Dancers performing high-kicking tango moves often came within inches of the patrons, probably startling a few as they went. The audience itself was utterly engaged, pivoting back and forth to see the performers who were in constant motion around them. The whole theater experience was interactive, and in a very unusual way.

Piazzolla’s music was played by a small yet outstanding orchestra of ten, led by Pablo Zinger, the conductor, who also played the piano. Zinger has the distinction of having worked frequently with Piazzolla himself, who died in 1992. In addition to Zinger, the band had a gifted classical guitarist from Nicaragua, Isaac Bustos, and a prominent bandoneon, an Argentine instrument like an accordion, played by Rodolfo Zanetti. The rest of the orchestra came from the Classical Music Institute, the resident company of the Tobin Center, which is now performing for all the productions of OPERA San Antonio.

Piazzolla’s opera is a combination of speeches of theatrical declamation and operatic singing. The piece is a reflection on the life, death, and sacrifice of Maria, a Buenos Aires prostitute. In poetic and sometimes surreal imagery, Maria is constantly being imagined in distorted religious terms-- a nativity “on a day that God was drunk,” a life of victimization that ends in a sort of crucifixion, a Mary who brings forth no virgin birth, and a death that leads to no resurrection. The poetic language is challenging. What does it mean to say “Let the Devil dip his lame leg in Garnacha wine as he grinds”? In the speed of the performance the audience does not have much time to puzzle out a line like this. The surreal poetry dashes by, but always balanced by the solvent of the wonderful tango music. Gritty earthiness, constant motion, painful lives, and the omnipresent tango-- the world of Maria is a remarkable experience.

The actor/singers were experienced performers of Maria, having done the production many times before coming to San Antonio. The international cast included Catalina Cuervo from Colombia as Maria, Gustavo Feulien from Argentina as the Payador, a gaucho singer, and Blas Canedo González, who grew up in Colombia, as the Duende, or spirit. The Duende is the narrator of the story, and in one notable number berates the music of the bandoneon for its treachery and unreliability.

Maria de Buenos Aires brought San Antonio an intense and exciting taste of the avant-garde in contemporary opera. The music of Piazzolla was a demonstration of the incredible versatility of the tango form. The setting and the requirement for engagement from the audience made Maria an immersive and unique opera experience. The post-performance surveys of the audience were almost universally rhapsodic in their praise. OPERA San Antonio should certainly continue to find opportunities to bring such engrossing and singular experiences to small audiences outside the main stage.