Review: Maria De Buenos Aires
A Review of the Gotham Chamber Opera's New York Production.
Dec 22, 2008
A long time resident of New York, Argentine composer Astor Piazolla, was able to embody the spirit of his native homeland, and call on a world of cultural influences and musical styles, garnered from years of travel and experience to write Maria De Buenos Aires.
This particular piece has been scripted since 1968, long before Piazolla achieved any notable success or acclaim. Co-written with a poet, Horacio Ferrer, Maria De Buenos Aires tells the story of a young, innocent girl who comes to the city to escape the suburban slums from which she came. Once there she falls into self-destruction as a prostitute, amid liquor, men and the ever alluring tango.
Language Barrier Proves Insurmountable to the Stylized Nature of the Story
At a brisk 80 minutes in length, the performance, which is certainly enchanting, is entirely in Spanish with no subtitle translation and can be something of a muddle to follow. A decision to introduce more dancers leads to a doubling of the roles. As such there are two Marias, and each has a male counterpart played by a different actor. Appearing both together and in separate scenes, as well as a group ensemble it can be a little difficult continually discerning who is who and keeping a track of the logical narrative. Couple to this is a speaking role, primarily to give exposition, but as it is in Spanish this information is lost to non Spanish speakers and only serves to break the rhythm of the performance whenever it is introduced.
Nicole Piccolomini, who plays the prominent Maria and is charged with the singing, is glorious. A graduate of Julliard, now with the Deutsche Opera in Berlin, she embodies Maria with a feisty fatalist spunk that lifts the show whenever she breaks into stride. Equally impressive is Ricardo Herrera as Porteno, the herald of Maria's bleak future, with an earthy voice and a burdened frame. This is somewhat stunted by the constant interruption of Duende, played by Diego Arciniegas. An utterly thankless role, that through no fault of his execution only serves to draw the audience out of the story world and back into the theater.
Choreography is Strong Throughout
Accompanying them is Parson's Dance; a company of ten full-time dancers who have performed together all over the world is places such as Italy and Brazil, to name but two. Their contemporary spin on classic tango is a sleek rendition of sensuality and animal attraction, brought to elegant life in split black skirts and stocking suspenders.
Ultimately this rendition is a very brave take on a unique and difficult work that doesn't quite manage to overcome the challenging obstacles placed before it. The doubling confuses, the lack of translation confounds, but the movement is memorizing, and the vigorous zest of the entire company is faultless. Maria De Buenos Aires is much like the title lady herself, beautiful and well intentioned, but flawed and ultimately elusive to those who pursue her.
