MARIA, I JUST MET A GIRL NAMED MARIA!

Jorge Parodi

JP Jofre

Marcelo Guzzo

Maria de Buenos Aires was composed over 40 years ago by Astor Piazzolla and has been getting produced all around the world.  This past weekend it was given an admirable production as the capstone of the Opera Hispanica Festival; Founder and Artistic Director Daniel Frost Hernandez left no detail to chance, assembling a fine cast and production team.  Nine musicians were in the capable hands of Maestro Jorge Parodi, Artistic Director, Music Director and conductor of undisputable talent.  Chief among them was JP Jofre whose electrifying playing of the bandoneon is both music and dance.  Guitarist Tali Roth also stood out for her fine musicianship.  The opera has a marvelous melody "Tema de Maria" which is reprised a couple times throughout the opera, a tune which we have been humming all night.

There were only two sung roles; performing the part of the eponymous heroine was Solange Merdinian whose movement skills were just as impressive as her voice and baritone Marcelo Guzzo as El Payador, a gentle country poet whose dark chocolate voice reminded me of Guinness.  (Well, it was St. Patrick's Day!)  Having learned a bit about the Argentinean dialect from Maestro Parodi at the master class a couple days earlier, we feel confident in saying that the diction was right on point.

The spoken role of El Duende was performed by Gerardo Gudiño and one couldn't ask for any more from an evil spirit  reciting surreal poetry.  As far as the libretto by Uruguayan poet Horacio Ferrer, it had a lovely rhythm in Spanish and was replete with symbolism but not in narrative coherence.  The projected English translation was not much different from other translations into English; neither comprehensible nor poetic.  The story is not even meant to be a narrative but a rather surrealistic examination of redemption.  Allusions to the story of the virgin birth and perhaps also to Jesus' resurrection are also present.

Stage Director Beth Greenberg did her customary excellent work in keeping one's attention focused on the significant action.  Maria in Part I is an unfortunate prostitute from the ghetto and in Part II, after her death, a "shadow" (perhaps what we call "a shade") who gives birth to herself for what may be a second chance at life.

Choreographer Daniel Fetecua Soto along with dancers Gayle Madeira and Sidney Grant provided the tango dancing.  We have never seen a tango for three dancers and found it rather compelling.  When not dancing, the trio sat at the back of the stage at a table, drinking and passing the time.  Projections were provided by Brett Banakis and Anka Lupes was credited with the costume design.

Choosing a nightclub in Greenwich Village as a venue was an interesting choice.  The buzz about the tango opera was huge and there was insufficient standing room for all the folks who wanted to attend.  The applause was deafening and the many curtain calls responded to the adulation of the audience.  On the other hand, the multiple distractions of people ordering food and drinks as well as the consequent delivery and consumption of same was a bit distracting.  To those accustomed to nightclubs it wouldn't be a problem; to those who attend musical events in an auditorium it would be.

We are eager to see what impressario Daniel Frost Hernandez has up his sleeve next!

(c) meche kroop

OPERA HISPANICA FESTIVAL

 

Amaya Arberas

What a stellar kickoff to the Opera Hispanica Festival!  The two stellar sopranos pictured here would have offered sufficient entertainment value but there was so much more that it is difficult to know where to begin.  Wednesday evening's event, the Festival Opening Concert and Reception, in cooperation with the Consulate General of Argentina, was a celebration of the arts and culture of Argentina and the tango was very much present.  We have room to describe only the highlights.

The violin of Sami Merdinian and the cello of Yves Dharamraj were joined by the piano of Artistic Director Jorge Parodi and the exciting bandoneón of JP Jofre for Mr. Jofre's

"Tango Movements" which he composed originally for symphony orchestra.  The spirited first movement gave way to a soulful center section and the contrast of Mr. Jofre's playing was fascinating to see and hear.

Fleet-fingered guitarist Tali Roth played her own devilishly difficult arrangement of Libertango, heard earlier in the program on violin and cello.  World-reknowned soprano Isabel Leonard thrilled with her performance of Xavier Monsalvatge's Cinco Canciones Negras, accompanied by Mr. Parodi.  The program closed with selections from Maria de Buenos Aires, a tango opera by Astor Piazzolla which will be the capstone of the festival.  Maria was sung by mezzo Malena Dayen and the baritone role by Marcelo Guzzo, with a small orchestra conducted by Mr. Parodi.  Mr. Jofre again dazzled with his bandoneón, played with artistry and passion.

The following evening at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute was no less exciting as Daniel Hernandez, Founder and Executive Director of Opera Hispanica, assembled an illustrious group of experts for a panel discussion of zarzuela. Playwright/diplomat Íñigo Ramírez de Haro served as moderator while composer Ricardo Llorca discussed the musical origins of zarzuela in 18th c. Spain.  There was an interesting cultural phenomenon which finds parallels in today's world; as the aristocracy went into decline, there evolved an imitation of the lower classes in musical taste as well as dance.  Having originated in France with aristocrats dressing as peasants and frolicking in the countryside, the trend spread throughout Europe.  The zarzuela used traditional Spanish music melded with European forms and became a popular tradition, carried over to the New World, evolving still further in Cuba, Mexico and S. America.

Dr. Janet Sturman, an ethnomusicologist from the University of Arizona and author of Zarzuela: Spanish Operetta described how classical-historical tales gave way to populist tales, in much the same way as opera seria eventually gave way to realismo.  The art form requires superb singers who can also act and dance since this is a story-driven form with few arias that can be excerpted for concert performance.

Maestro Parodi filled us in on the art form from the Argentinian perspective.  In his country, the upper classes were Spanish but the immigrants who arrived came from Italy and brought along their operatic heritage which competed with the Spanish tradition.  It was interesting to learn that in the early 20th c. there were five major opera theatres in Buenos Aires.  With Piazzola's Maria de Buenos Aires, it is evident that Argenina has made zarzuela its very own.

There was a lot of information to digest and like a tonic for weary minds, the superb soprano Amaya Arberas demonstrated for the audience "Carceleras" from Las hijas del Zebedeo by Ruperto Chapi and baritone Yunpeng Wang, winner of the Zarzuela Award in Placido Domingo's international opera competition Operalia performed "Amor vida de mi vida" from Maravilla by Federico Moreno Torroba.  Guitar accompaniment was by the excellent David Galvez.

The festival will continue with tonight's recital by Eglise Gutiérrez and Maestro Parodi at the Americas Society with next week's offering being the tango opera at Le Poisson Rouge.  It is worth noting and celebrating the fact that Mr. Hernandez has established the one and only opera company in the United States devoted exclusively to Spanish and Latin American music and music dealing with that culture.  He has surely filled a gap in the world of music.

(c) meche kroop