6th & 7th May / 13th & 14th May / 3rd & 4th June
Doors at 10:00 pm - Performance starts at 10:30 - Party till 2 am
OSKAR McCARTHY and A CURIOUS INVITATION present MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES - a surreal tango operita with music by the creator of tango nuevo Argentinian bandoneonist ASTOR PIAZZOLLA and words by Uruguayan poet HORACIO FERRER.
Descend into the Vaults and mingle with the lowlife of old Buenos Aires - thieves, card sharps, pimps and whores - where the Narrator will relate the story of Piazzolla's muse, María, a prostitute born in the slums “one day when God was drunk … with a curse in her voice.” Maria is seduced by the rhythms of the tango and soon becomes “the most sorcerous singer and lover” in Buenos Aires. But her “fatal passion” arouses the wrath of the languishing bandoneonist, who, driven to madness by Maria’s unrelenting freedom, conspires with a group of robbers and brothel madames to murder her. After her death, her Shadow returns to haunt the sordid streets she once walked, and only then does Piazzolla, along with his rival the Narrator, realise the error of his ways: “Maria is music, she can’t belong to anyone!” A modern day Passion Play, full of religious allusions and black humour, set to a soundtrack of tangos, milongas and waltzes.
This intimate 90-minute masterpiece featuring an 11-piece orchestra will be presented in the setting of an abandoned carnival. After the performance guests who, like María herself, refuse to depart the scene will be invited to tango into the small hours at our after show party.
Maria de Buenos Aires is presented by arrangement with Warner Chappell Music Limited.
Producers - Oskar McCarthy and Suzette Field
Director - Ella Marchment
Musical Director - Noah Mosley
Movement Director - Rachel Drazek
Costume Designer - Nais Molines
Assistant Musical Director - Jeremy Walker
Maria - Clare Ghigo
Cantor - Ricardo Panela
El Duende - Sergio Jaraiz Lara
Piazzolla - Martin Espindola
Chorus - Antonio Hurtado, Frankie Wakefield, Brais Breijo, Cinthia Lilen, Tania Firth, Veronica Morejon