Maria de Buenos Aires
It takes two to tango. Andreas Mitisek, the leader of Long Beach Opera, has grabbed hold of Astor Piazzolla's gorgeous rarity Maria de Buenos Aires, shaken it free of cliche, and spun it forcefully onto the Warner Grand stage in San Pedro. Mitisek is a passionate partner. Director, conductor, and production designer, he has crafted an entirely new scenario that centers on Argentina's “Dirty War” of the 1970's and '80's. The scintillating music makes the blood percolate. The visuals make it boil.
Maria has been a curio since its creation in 1968, when poet Horacio Ferrer and Piazzolla created, in their own designation, an “operita de tango (a little tango opera).” This tangy blend of spoken word, song, and music centered on a heroine and musical idiom they considered the twin souls of Argentina. Narrated by El Duende (The Goblin or Spirit), each number employed a different form of tango to reflect the descent of a prostitute who's beaten down by the city's seamy side. Even after death continues to haunt the streets of Buenos Aires, she meets a motley group of psychoanalysts and marionettes, becomes pregnant by the Word and - before you can say madonna/whore – transcends this blending of the biblical Mary's by giving birth to a baby Maria.
Long Beach Opera staged the work in 2004 without, I gather, tampering too much with the surreal story. Mitisek has replaced it with one of his own, re-conceiving the pre-existing characters and coming up with a new one. The opening parade of newsreel-style projections sets the piece in a true context and an even darker side of the city – the political terror wrought by Argentina's military juntas. Maria (Peabody Southwell in a committed and commanding performance) is now a relative innocent. Lusted after by the awkward Marco (an impressively precise Mark Bringelson), she has eyes only for Payador (Gregorio Gonzalez, pitch perfect in voice and look), a young idealist. When Payador is arrested, Maria infiltrates the world of the juntas in an attempt to save him, is raped by the now-powerful Marco, and tortured in a cell next to Payador. He tries in vain to soothe her suffering by recalling their youth. The tragic tale is narrated by the Older Payador/ El Duende (Gregorio Luke, in a spoken role), whose memories cannot bring his love back to life.
Now put to a markedly different purpose, Piazzolla's music bears the new weight beautifully. The tango is not just for Dancing With the Stars. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it's played thrillingly here. Unfortunately, the horrifyingly real events depicted, especially when set against documentary style projections, do not always jibe with Ferrer's abstract poetry, even when delivered with specificity and palpable emotion by Luke. Minimizing the imprint of dance in the piece, Mitisek understandably leans on the impressive video design by Adam Flemming – aided by Dan Weingarten's elegant lighting - to take up the visual slack during the musical interludes. The more presentational images, by giving the sense that Maria stands for all of Argentina's Disappeared, serve Ferrer's impressionistic language best.
The Long Beach Opera version of Piazzolla and Ferrer's brilliant Maria de Buenos Aires is a searing success. Like its heroine, the production is not long for this world – its two performance run ends this Saturday, February 4th - but will not be forgotten. Maria knows how to get under your skin.