Borges – Music: Piazzolla “María de Buenos Aires”
- At September 02, 2018
- By Great Quail
- In Borges
- 0
María de Buenos Aires
María de Buenos Aires
Gidon Kremer
Germany: Teldec CD, 1998.
Track Listing
Disc 1
1. Alevare
2. Teme de María (“Theme of María”)
3. Balada renga para un organito loco (“Lame Ballad for a Crazy Hurdy-Gurdy”)
4. Yo soy María (“I Am María”)
5. Milonga Carrieguera por María la niña (“Carpieran Milonga for the Child María”)
6. Fuga y misterioso (“Fugue and Mystery”)
7. Poema valseado (“Waltzed-Poem”)
8. Tocata rea (“Accusation Toccata”)
9. Miserere Canyengue de los landrates antiguos en las alcantarillas (“Canyengue Miserere of the Old Gutter Thieves”)
Disc 2
1. Contramilonga a la funerala por la primera muerte de María (“Funeral Countermilonga for the First Death of María”)
2. Tangata del alba (“Tangata as Dawn”)
3. Carta a los árboles y las chimeneas (“A Letter to the Trees and Chimneys”)
4. Aria de los analistas (“Aria of the Analysts”)
5. Romanza de duende poeta y curda (“Romanza of the Drunken Poet Duende”)
6. Allegro tangabile
7. Milonga de la anunciación (“Milonga of the Annunciation”)
8. Tangus Dei
Musicians
Astor Piazzolla, Score
Horacio Ferrer, Libretto
Julia Zenko, María
Horacio Ferrer, El Duende
Jairo, Voices
Gideon Kremer, Violin
Per Arne Glorvigen, Bandoneón
Vadim Sakharov, Piano
Alois Posch, Double bass
Maria Fedotova, Flute
Ula Zebriunaite, Viola
Marta Sudraba, Violoncello
Peter Sadlo, Percussion
Coral Lírico Buenos Aires, Chorus
There are nearly a dozen recordings of María de Buenos Aires, from Piazzolla’s original LP with Amelia Baltar to transcriptions for solo guitar. A few examples include productions directed by Victor Vallena, Murry Sidlin, Vittorio Antonellini, Oriana Dierinck, Marcelo Nisinman, Christopher Sprenger, and Ensemble Triade. While Piazzolla’s original is still my favorite, it’s difficult to find on compact disc. More easy to locate is this 1998 version by Teldec, featuring Gidon Kremer and his Kremer Musica, the original librettist Horace Ferrer, and Jairo, whose voice graced the magnificent album Borges & Piazzolla. Although I haven’t heard every available María de Buenos Aires, Kremer has a long history of interpreting Piazzolla, and this version feels like a worthy update to the original. It also has the sexiest cover—not an insignificant consideration for this risqué opera!
Notes
Astor Piazzolla’s great “tango operita,” this surreal work is a collaboration with Uruguayan poet Horacio Ferrer. Although not directly related to Borges, its themes are often reminiscent of Borges’ early work, and the libretto is written in lunfardo, the dialect Borges famously attempted to capture in Fervor de Buenos Aires. Definitely among Piazzolla’s strangest works, María de Buenos Aires is an eclectic brew of musical styles, an even more ambitious extension of ideas pioneered in El tango. Maybe one day I will put a full review on this page, but for now here’s the amazing summary from Wikipedia:
The ill-omened María, born “one day when God was drunk” in a poor suburb of Buenos Aires, heads to the center of Buenos Aires, where she is seduced by the music of the tango and becomes a sex worker. Thieves and brothel keepers, gathered at a black mass, resolve her death. After her death, she is condemned to a hell, which is the city itself: her Shadow, now walks the city. She has returned to virginity, is impregnated by the word of the goblin poet, and—witnessed by three Construction Worker Magi and The Women Who Knead Pasta—gives birth to a Child María, who may be herself. The characters include María (and, after her death, the Shadow of María), a singer of payadas; various members of the Buenos Aires underworld; a payador who functions as a poet and narrator; a goblin-like duende; several marionettes under the control of the duende; a circus of psychoanalysts; pasta makers; and construction workers.
If this summary doesn’t make you run out and listen to this album, I’m not sure I can help you.
Additional Information
Original Recording of María — You can listen to Piazzolla’s original 1968 recording on YouTube.
Antioquia María Production — A full production of María de Buenos Aires is available online at YouTube, produced in 2013 by the Departamento de Musica Facultad de Artes at Colombia’s Universidad de Antioquia.
María Excerpt — An excerpt from a Serbian production of María de Buenos Aires. Strangely, tango is actually quite big in Eastern Europe!
María de Buenos Aires Wikipedia Page — Wikipedia hosts a fairly detailed page on Piazzolla’s bizarre operita.
Discogs María Page — The Discogs page on María de Buenos Aires has information on the original recording, including scanned images and posters.
Astor Piazzolla’s Borges-Related Works
Astor Piazzolla Main Page
Return to the Garden of Forking Path’s Astor Piazzolla profile.
El tango (1965)
Piazzolla set some of Borges’ poems and milongas to music on the album El tango.
The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (1987)
A cycle of fourteen pieces inspired by Borges’ poetry, this work was commissioned for the Hispanic American Arts Center’s production of Tango Apasionado.
Borges & Piazzolla (1996)
A modern remake of El tango, this exuberant album brings Borges’ mythical Buenos Aires to life through music, song, and narration.
Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 2 September 2019
Borges Music Page: Borges and Music
Main Borges Page: The Garden of Forking Paths
Contact: quail(at)shipwrecklibrary(dot)com