Astor Piazzolla: Maria De Buenos Aires – Daniel Bonilla-Torres

   in Opera Now (May, 2019)
Three new releases push the boundaries of what an opera actually is, and how we may potentially define it. The oldest work, María di Buenos Aires, was composed by Ástor Piazzolla in 1968, and is generally described as a tango opera, and perhaps its most traditionally operatic aspect is that it follows the well-trodden and sorry path of a woman who is a prostitute, roaming the city in both life and death. Large dollops of magic realism and nebulous imagery culminate in the dead María’s virgin shadow bearing a child; not Jesus, but perhaps María’s reincarnation, or another being altogether? Otherwise it isn’t overly operatic at all as the main character …