Astor Piazzolla’a opera-tango María de Buenos Aires has been recorded, perhaps surprisingly, many times.  The latest version comes from the Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria and conductor Filippo Arlia with Ce Suarez Pas as María.

It’s a strange piece full of the sort of weird imagery one associates with South American magical realism and then some.  The plot concerns a poor young girl in a very gritty Buenos Aires.  She becomes a singer then a prostitute,  Then she dies and her ghost wonders the city until she forced to give birth ti a daughter, also María, and so ending her role in the eternal cycle (“Forgotten are you among all women”) that will be carried on by her daughter.  Her journeys and her resurrection are directed in some strange way by a spoken word character El Duende (The Goblin).  Along the way she meets all kinds of strange people and others; a sparrow, a thief, a psychoanalyst, noodle kneaders, wizard bricklayers and much more.  It’s really creepy.

Musically it’s a mixture of numbers for María and a variety of male characters (all sung by Alberto Maria Munafò), passages where The Goblin (Gualtiero Scola) speaks over the orchestra, choral elements, where three male and three female singers play a host of characters, and instrumentals.  The music, of course, is based on tango with heavy emphasis on Bandoneon, played here by Cesare Chiacchiaretta, but there’s also electric guitar (Salvatore Russo), a solo violin (Giovanni Zonno) and two pianos (Nico Fuscaldo and Filippo Arlia).  It’s an interesting structure with the very creepy spoken Goblin adding a sinister element.

The performances are very good.  Paz is a really good tango singer with a soulful voice that well conveys the empty horror that is María.  Munafò has a rather pleasant voice and sings his multiple characters pretty straight.  Scola is just creepy enough without being OTT.  The solo instrumentalists are all good, especially Chiacchiaretta, and so is the orchestra.

The recording was made at Colonia San Benedetto in Cetraro in 2021 and it’s good.  The singers are captured clearly and the balance seems fairly natural.  It’s only available as a 2CD physical set or on streaming services.

Definitely worth a listen if you aren’t familiar with this rather strange work.  Worth it for Ce Suarez Paz’ worldly and sensuous Marìa if you are familiar.

Catalogue information: Brilliant Classics BRI96762