Chicago Stage Premiere of MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES Begins 4/20

COT's Chicago Stage Premiere production of Astor Piazzolla's MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES evokes Argentina's "Dirty War", the period between 1976 and 1983 when the country was governed by military juntas which controlled the populace through state-sponsored terrorism. This "tango operita" is of stunning originality, pulsing to the passion and beat of Astor Piazzolla's revolutionary "nuevo tango" and Horacio Ferrer's mesmerizing, imaginative poetry. Chicago Opera Theater's production is a collaboration with Chicago's Luna Negra Dance Theater at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Drive, and runs for four performances only: Saturday, April 20; Wednesday, April 24; Friday, April 26; and Sunday, April 28. Tickets are on sale now.

María de Buenos Aires premiered in 1968, closer in time to the "Dirty War" than to the 30's and 40's where it is often placed. While the country was under control of the juntas, upwards of 30,000 people "disappeared," while many more were victims of torture and abuse. "These themes are implicit in Piazzolla's radical music and Ferrer's ingenious poetry," says Andreas Mitisek, COT's General Director. "This production delves into the soul of this work and gives it a contemporary meaning beyond clichés and stereotypes."

Mitisek explains, "Our María represents the passion of the Argentinian women who were as seductive as the tango while resilient and strong enough to overcome dictatorship in a country where the machismo culture predominates. Taking the tango to its most brutal extreme, the 'Dirty War' was a dance of torture, covered in blood, and danced by the highest echelons of society and power. In María, the tango is a dance of life and death. Piazzolla embraced the tango in an extreme way. He took it to a deeper level. He intensified everything about it - the harmonies, the form, the noises, the jerks; he created a revolution within the tango."

"Piazzolla's María is the ultimate metaphor for the heart and soul of Argentina and, for me, also a metaphor for love, hope, fear and resilience," continues Mitisek." In our production, María falls victim to the "Dirty War," but she is reborn in the protests of the thousands of "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo" whose children "disappeared." It is a paradox that those who were treated the harshest by the dictators remained the strongest. It was these mothers and others like them whose fight for justice eventually brought the military to its knees." María: I dream a dream that nobody ever dreamed. María noche, María pasión fatal! María del amor!