Astor Piazzolla: María De Buenos Aires

Astor Piazzolla is regarded as the central figure in tango, having reshaped it into a bold modernist form known as tango nuevo. This fusion of the dance’s expressive intensity with elements of jazz, counterpoint and contemporary harmonic language became a global phenomenon. María de Buenos Aires is a “tango operita”, the first collaboration between the composer and the poet Horacio Ferrer, originally conceived for radio. Strikingly surreal in character, the work is imbued with psychoanalytic motifs, religious allusions and urban folklore. At its centre stands the figure of María, a personification of Buenos Aires, with all its sensuality, violence, mysticism and social contradictions. The result is an unusual, almost ritualistic musical drama that transcends genre boundaries and remains one of the composer’s most daring and influential works.

The ensemble is led by Argentine bandoneonist Marcelo Nisinman, who is joined by Dutch-British violinist Daniel Rowland, Slovene violinist Jerica Kozole, Slovene violist Maja Rome, Serbian-French cellist Maja Bogdanović, Montenegrin-Slovene double bassist Zoran Marković, Paris-trained Ukrainian pianist Natacha Kudritskaya, Italian guitarist Alberto Mesirca, Slovene flautist Irena Kavčič and Slovene percussionists Špela Cvikl Flis and Jan Cibej. In the vocal roles, María will be portrayed by the Chilean-Swedish mezzo-soprano Luciana Mancini, while the tenor role will be sung by the Argentine tango singer Rubén Peloni. The spoken narration will be delivered by the Puerto Rican reciter Daniel Bonilla-Torres.