MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES

María de Buenos Aires is probably Astor Piazzolla’s most important work. Drawing on his own experiences and dogged courage, but also respecting tradition, Piazzolla has created an avant-garde work of art. The libretto, by Horacio Ferrer, is a surreal and visionary story, inspired by an urban legend about the unfortunate María, born in a miserable suburb of Buenos Aires. But María’s story is fundamentally a metaphor. Her story tells of the years of poverty, hope, oppression by a dictatorial state and the temporary rebirth of this metropolitan city par excellence: its inhabitants are almost all Europeans in exile. It is precisely the meaning of the word ‘exile’ that will be developed and explored in this performance. Exile from one’s own land, from one’s own neighbourhood, from childhood, from one’s own soul, from oneself.

There is an imaginary city supported and at the same time caged by a metal structure. Scenographically, everything is imprisoned, the scaffolding that occupies the backdrop of the scene supports walls under construction or crumbling and keeps the buildings, its inhabitants and the music itself trapped. Humanity destroys its own magnificent works with wicked actions. A beautiful and bewitching music will come out of the same cage and will draw María towards what will be her terrible destiny, which will imprison her without giving her any escape with the only possibility of escaping towards a precipice, in the bottom of which she will find herself, her shadow.

Carlos Branca

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)