Tango opera casts surreal spell on audience

The year was 1968, when "Maria de Buenos Aires, a Tango Opera" premiered at the Sala Planeta in Buenos Aires. The plot centered on Maria, a prostitute who was killed, then came back to haunt the area where she once lived and worked. But it is the execution of the plot - including a ghost, religious parallels, some tango, and a libretto that can be like a word jumble, among other elements - that made it surreal.

But why not embrace the challenge, and on Sept. 9 and 10, the New Orleans Opera Association and Casa Argentina presented this opera. It was the first collaboration between the two groups. A stellar group of professional musicians, dancers and vocalists were enlisted for the performance. Maria was portrayed by Catalina Cuervo; El Payador, Luis Alejandro Orozco; and El Duende, Milton Loayza, while the ensemble included Olivia Garcia, Melanie Gardner, Elizabeth Lowry, William Alber, Frank Convit and Dylan Tran. Tango dancers were Maureen and Carlos Urrego and Jermias Massera and Mariela Braufaldi. The live orchestra included members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Polymnia Quartet, as well as the special appearance of the Argentinian tango music superstars, the Binelli-Forman Duo with Polly Ferman on piano and Daniel Binelli on the bandoneon. Tomer Zvulun of the Atlanta Opera was the director and the New Orleans Opera Association's Robert Lyall was conductor.

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