Celebrating Opera From the Haunting to the Festive

Born on a day when God was drunk, delivered by two chubby angels, sad, sad Maria grew up under the spell of the archangel of brotheldom. She died on a cross of two tangos and was buried in the dregs of an espresso. A very different Christmas story, this, Astor Piazzolla’s sophisticated, intoxicating, unforgettable tango opera written 30 years ago. The character Goblin calls forth her spirit from the cracks in the pavement and tells her sordid, tragic tale with “the hands of Cain and a hooker” playing tangos on her bones. A chorus of meddlesome psychiatrists is called in to analyze her ghost, but the chattering ceases and the pasta-kneader’s hands tremble inside the dough at the wonder of her redemption, revealed in a Tangus Dei and a virgin birth. The brilliant, haunting performance is led by violinist Gidon Kremer and superbly cast with Julia Zenko as Maria and the fantastic librettist, Horacio Ferrer himself, in the spoken part of the Goblin. A must!

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