Tango-L mailing list archive: Digest 16 Nov 1999 to 17 Nov 1999

The Tango-L mailing list archive

Digest from 16 Nov 1999 to 17 Nov 1999

Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU> To: Recipients of TANGO-L digests <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU> Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 03:00:17 -0500 Sender: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU> From: Automatic digest processor <LISTSERV @MITVMA.MIT.EDU> Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 16 Nov 1999 to 17 Nov 1999 (#1999-65)

There are 4 messages totalling 475 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. [Fwd: Tango Argentino on Broadway (long)] 2. The Tango Calendar 3. del tanguero neocelandes - mi bandoneon 4. saludo! tango in english

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Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 17:29:25 -0500 From: Matej Oresic <matej.oresic @CORNELL.EDU> Subject: [Fwd: Tango Argentino on Broadway (long)] This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

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5197397737654BC46DFF31DF Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: <owner-TANGO-L @cornell.edu> Received: from listproc2.mail.cornell.edu (LISTPROC2.MAIL.CORNELL.EDU [132.236.56.15]) by postoffice2.mail.cornell.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id QAA17636; Tue, 16 Nov 1999 16:46:18 -0500 (EST) Received: (from daemon @localhost) by listproc2.mail.cornell.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA03789; Tue, 16 Nov 1999 16:46:17 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost.mail.cornell.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by listproc2.mail.cornell.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id QAA02804; Tue, 16 Nov 1999 16:34:55 -0500 (EST) Received: from postoffice2.mail.cornell.edu (POSTOFFICE2.MAIL.CORNELL.EDU [132.236.56.10]) by listproc2.mail.cornell.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA02786 for <TANGO-L @listproc2.mail.cornell.edu>; Tue, 16 Nov 1999 16:34:43 -0500 (EST) Received: (from daemon @localhost) by postoffice2.mail.cornell.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) id QAA23576; Tue, 16 Nov 1999 16:34:42 -0500 (EST) Received: from cornell.edu (H1324.DIALUP.CORNELL.EDU [128.253.44.38]) by postoffice2.mail.cornell.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id QAA23364; Tue, 16 Nov 1999 16:34:37 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <3831CE16.E3BBF578 @cornell.edu>

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C8C8D3A317336FFCA02EB465 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Tangueros, Rina and I had a chance to see Tango Argentino last Saturday on Broadway's Gershwin Theatre. There has been a lot of anticipation about this show coming to Broadway, since this show made the legend by bringing Argentine tango back to life around the world with its appearance on Broadway and Paris in early 80s. The producers Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli presented to the world the best musicians and popular&show tango dancers at the time, and the show was a huge success. The show also opened the door to many other shows, usually imitations trying to cash in on the success of Tango Argentino and obviously of lesser quality (Tango Pasion and Forever Tango), or the shows catered more to Argentine audiences and tango purists elsewhere, going further in presenting the popular tango theatrically (Miguel&Milena's Una Noche de Tango). Besides the outstanding music, the main attraction of the show were its colorful dancers, all with distinct style and personality ... and it was exactly the personality, not the virtuosity, that defined Tango Argentino. Unfortunately the show closed in early 90s for several reasons, one of the most important was Hector Orezzoli's untimely death in 1991. Now, the show is back! Over a decade is a long time, and many of the most colorful characters from the original cast are no longer around. In particular, Virulazo&Navira, both deceased by now, and Gloria&Eduardo, no longer dancing together, are very much missed in the show. Instead, Claudio Segovia decided to include some of the today's finest dancers of the "younger" generation such as Pablo Veron & Guillermina Quiroga, Roberto Herrera, Vanina Bilous, and several others, joining the cast of the "old guard" Juan Carlos Copes & Maria Nieves, Carlos & Ines Borges, Nelida & Nelson, Mayoral & Elsa Maria. The orchestra led by Troilo's ex-pianist Osvaldo Berlingieri consists of piano, four bandoneons, six volins, violoncello, and bass, as well as four outstanding singers. Just the fact that this is a re-appearance of a legendary show and the current cast suggest this is a show not to be missed ... so don't miss it! However, the legend carries also certain expectations and those who expect the same magic as in the original show, or people like me who didn't see the original, expecting something way better than anything ever seen, might well feel at first disappointed unless the show is watched without any anticipation. My first reaction was modestly negative due to all the expectations, but in a day when the show grew a bit inside me independently..., I started to really like it and by now I'd love to see it again... The orchetstra is absolutely outstanding. It has a strong resemblance of Troilo's lyrical style, in striking contrast to the noisy camp style arrangements of otherwise good Forever Tango orchestra recently seen on Broadway. Osvaldo Berlingieri's piano variations in Piazzolla's Adios Nonino are one of the most memorable moments of the show. The four singers, Raul Lavie, Maria Grana, Jovita Luna, and Alba Solis, are in the league of their own in the genre as well. The music definitely is way better than I have ever experienced live. The dancers will probably rise the most of the controversy, because they are all star-dancers of today, so expectations are high, and in particular because the show was put together in a short time and several couples have been "joined" only very recetnly. Pablo Veron & Guillermina Quiroga, Roberto Herrera & Lorena Yakono, Antonio Cervilla Jr. & Vanina Bilous are dancing for the first time together in this show and had only few weeks to get used to each other. Juan Carlos Copes & Maria Nieves, the legendary couple from the original production, haven't been dancing together in years and started to work together again just for this show as well. Some of the initial criticism from Buenos Aires production (in Clarin, .. La Nacion's critique was very positive) from two weeks ago was aimed particularly at these couples consisting of dancers individually known as some of the best dancers of today, and the expected magic of them dancing with partners was missing. However, given their quality, the learning curve is very steep and I think they will be getting better together with every show. There will be lots of discussion about personal favorites in the show... There is lots of virtuosity as well as lots of spirit, and I have hard time picking favorites ... Pablo Veron & Guillermina Quiroga did wonderful choreography to La Cumparsita, but if I were to be very picky, they still looked more like two big stars, not a star-couple. The dancer that stood out in the whole show was Vanina Bilous. She did the wonderful solo as milonguita, and her numbers with Antonio Cervilla Jr. were outstanding. There really is no tango lady in her league, maybe maybe Milena Plebs, I was trully astonished with Vanina's dancing and you should see it for yourself! Some people liked most Carlos&Alicia doing Recuerdo, and it truly was good, but for my taste it was a bit too predictable with slow beginning and then speeding up to supersonics in the finale. This is too common, however well executed. Some preferred Chique with Juan Carlos Copes and his daughter Johana Copes. It truly was very good! The expectations were extremely high for Copes&Nieves dancing Patetico, and that's probably the reason why some people were disappointed. But wait! ... it was very good and I am sure with every day they are getting better. Their dancing at the end of the show was outstanding. Milongueando en el '40 was performed by Roberto Herrera & Lorena Yakono. It was a very dynamic choreography executed with technical perfection, but anybody aware of original cast choreography performed by Gloria&Eduardo would probabluy rather stick to the original, however great the current version is danced. Personality goes a long way ... The older original cast members add to the much needed personality of the show: Mayoral&Elsa Maria with their sweet salon tango to Milonguero Viejo, Nelida&Nelson with their dramatic&showy European tango Celos, and Carlos&Ines Borges with their agressive, sometimes to the point of being parodic, La Yumba. Overall, looking back, there is a lot of great and inspiring dancing in the show, and I am sure in a very short time when the cast "breaks in" as a whole everybody's expectations will be met. If the quality of the show needs to be compared, the only show I see as in the same league is Una Noche de Tango created by Milena Plebs and Miguel Zotto. However, the two shows are very different. The Tango Argentino is a Broadway production, aimed for "export", while Una Noche de Tango seem to be aimed for Argentine audiences. My first reaction was that Una Noche de Tango was a better show, but after some time Tango Argentino hit me as well... While Zotto&Plebs's shows shine with great choreographies, theater, lighting, as well as good music, the Tango Argentino shines with variety of dancing (despite the fact that the original cast was even more varied), absolutely outstanding singers and the orchestra, while the staging is very minimalistic, emphasizing the performers and creating the atmosphere with subtle lighting. Tango Argentino also demonstrates how important is personality in tango, like in any other art. Most of the common shows are filled with couples doing machine-gun perfect routines consisting of almost standardized Todaro-taught steps, but the point is if you see one of such couples, you have seen them all. No such case with true tango... Lacking Virulazo&Navira and Gloria&Eduardo, Tango Argentino gets closer to the "common tango show", but not quite. There is still a lot of personality in it, and lets hope the new generation of tango dancers will learn to appreciate the spirit and personality in tango, not so much virtuosity per se. Let's say Tango Argentino is a show which is as good as tango can be today ... if you are not completely happy, that's probably because for several years when most of the today's show dancers grew up, and let's be honest, supported in that by the audiences outside Argentina...., the emphasis in tango shows was who is going to do a turn or gancho better and faster, not who is going to be more elegant or creative. Tango Argentino is definitely a great show not to be missed. The tickets are available through the TicketMaster at: http://www.ticketmaster.com/ Best regards, Matej http://lancelot.bio.cornell.edu/matej/tango/

C8C8D3A317336FFCA02EB465 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Hello Tangueros, Rina and I had a chance to see Tango Argentino last Saturday on Broadway's Gershwin Theatre. There has been a lot of anticipation about this show coming to Broadway, since this show made the legend by bringing Argentine tango back to life around the world with its appearance on Broadway and Paris in early 80s. The producers Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli presented to the world the best musicians and popular&show tango dancers at the time, and the show was a huge success. The show also opened the door to many other shows, usually imitations trying to cash in on the success of Tango Argentino and obviously of lesser quality (Tango Pasion and Forever Tango), or the shows catered more to Argentine audiences and tango purists elsewhere, going further in presenting the popular tango theatrically (Miguel&Milena's Una Noche de Tango). Besides the outstanding music, the main attraction of the show were its colorful dancers, all with distinct style and personality ... and it was exactly the personality, not the virtuosity, that defined Tango Argentino. Unfortunately the show closed in early 90s for several reasons, one of the most important was Hector Orezzoli's untimely death in 1991. Now, the show is back! Over a decade is a long time, and many of the most colorful characters from the original cast are no longer around. In particular, Virulazo&Navira, both deceased by now, and Gloria&Eduardo, no longer dancing together, are very much missed in the show. Instead, Claudio Segovia decided to include some of the today's finest dancers of the "younger" generation such as Pablo Veron & Guillermina Quiroga, Roberto Herrera, Vanina Bilous, and several others, joining the cast of the "old guard" Juan Carlos Copes & Maria Nieves, Carlos & Ines Borges, Nelida & Nelson, Mayoral & Elsa Maria. The orchestra led by Troilo's ex-pianist Osvaldo Berlingieri consists of piano, four bandoneons, six volins, violoncello, and bass, as well as four outstanding singers. Just the fact that this is a re-appearance of a legendary show and the current cast suggest this is a show not to be missed ... so don't miss it! However, the legend carries also certain expectations and those who expect the same magic as in the original show, or people like me who didn't see the original, expecting something way better than anything ever seen, might well feel at first disappointed unless the show is watched without any anticipation. My first reaction was modestly negative due to all the expectations, but in a day when the show grew a bit inside me independently..., I started to really like it and by now I'd love to see it again... The orchetstra is absolutely outstanding. It has a strong resemblance of Troilo's lyrical style, in striking contrast to the noisy camp style arrangements of otherwise good Forever Tango orchestra recently seen on Broadway. Osvaldo Berlingieri's piano variations in Piazzolla's Adios Nonino are one of the most memorable moments of the show. The four singers, Raul Lavie, Maria Grana, Jovita Luna, and Alba Solis, are in the league of their own in the genre as well. The music definitely is way better than I have ever experienced live. The dancers will probably rise the most of the controversy, because they are all star-dancers of today, so expectations are high, and in particular because the show was put together in a short time and several couples have been "joined" only very recetnly. Pablo Veron & Guillermina Quiroga, Roberto Herrera & Lorena Yakono, Antonio Cervilla Jr. & Vanina Bilous are dancing for the first time together in this show and had only few weeks to get used to each other. Juan Carlos Copes & Maria Nieves, the legendary couple from the original production, haven't been dancing together in years and started to work together again just for this show as well. Some of the initial criticism from Buenos Aires production (in Clarin, .. La Nacion's critique was very positive) from two weeks ago was aimed particularly at these couples consisting of dancers individually known as some of the best dancers of today, and the expected magic of them dancing with partners was missing. However, given their quality, the learning curve is very steep and I think they will be getting better together with every show. There will be lots of discussion about personal favorites in the show... There is lots of virtuosity as well as lots of spirit, and I have hard time picking favorites ... Pablo Veron & Guillermina Quiroga did wonderful choreography to La Cumparsita, but if I were to be very picky, they still looked more like two big stars, not a star-couple. The dancer that stood out in the whole show was Vanina Bilous. She did the wonderful solo as milonguita, and her numbers with Antonio Cervilla Jr. were outstanding. There really is no tango lady in her league, maybe maybe Milena Plebs, I was trully astonished with Vanina's dancing and you should see it for yourself! Some people liked most Carlos&Alicia doing Recuerdo, and it truly was good, but for my taste it was a bit too predictable with slow beginning and then speeding up to supersonics in the finale. This is too common, however well executed. Some preferred Chique with Juan Carlos Copes and his daughter Johana Copes. It truly was very good! The expectations were extremely high for Copes&Nieves dancing Patetico, and that's probably the reason why some people were disappointed. But wait! ... it was very good and I am sure with every day they are getting better. Their dancing at the end of the show was outstanding. Milongueando en el '40 was performed by Roberto Herrera & Lorena Yakono. It was a very dynamic choreography executed with technical perfection, but anybody aware of original cast choreography performed by Gloria&Eduardo would probabluy rather stick to the original, however great the current version is danced. Personality goes a long way ... The older original cast members add to the much needed personality of the show: Mayoral&Elsa Maria with their sweet salon tango to Milonguero Viejo, Nelida&Nelson with their dramatic&showy European tango Celos, and Carlos&Ines Borges with their agressive, sometimes to the point of being parodic, La Yumba. Overall, looking back, there is a lot of great and inspiring dancing in the show, and I am sure in a very short time when the cast "breaks in" as a whole everybody's expectations will be met. If the quality of the show needs to be compared, the only show I see as in the same league is Una Noche de Tango created by Milena Plebs and Miguel Zotto. However, the two shows are very different. The Tango Argentino is a Broadway production, aimed for "export", while Una Noche de Tango seem to be aimed for Argentine audiences. My first reaction was that Una Noche de Tango was a better show, but after some time Tango Argentino hit me as well... While Zotto&Plebs's shows shine with great choreographies, theater, lighting, as well as good music, the Tango Argentino shines with variety of dancing (despite the fact that the original cast was even more varied), absolutely outstanding singers and the orchestra, while the staging is very minimalistic, emphasizing the performers and creating the atmosphere with subtle lighting. Tango Argentino also demonstrates how important is personality in tango, like in any other art. Most of the common shows are filled with couples doing machine-gun perfect routines consisting of almost standardized Todaro-taught steps, but the point is if you see one of such couples, you have seen them all. No such case with true tango... Lacking Virulazo&Navira and Gloria&Eduardo, Tango Argentino gets closer to the "common tango show", but not quite. There is still a lot of personality in it, and lets hope the new generation of tango dancers will learn to appreciate the spirit and personality in tango, not so much virtuosity per se. Let's say Tango Argentino is a show which is as good as tango can be today ... if you are not completely happy, that's probably because for several years when most of the today's show dancers grew up, and let's be honest, supported in that by the audiences outside Argentina...., the emphasis in tango shows was who is going to do a turn or gancho better and faster, not who is going to be more elegant or creative. Tango Argentino is definitely a great show not to be missed. The tickets are available through the TicketMaster at: <A HREF="http://www.ticketmaster.com/">http://www.ticketmaster.com/</A> Best regards, Matej <A HREF="http://lancelot.bio.cornell.edu/matej/tango/">http://lancelot.bio.cornell.edu/matej/tango/</A> </html>

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Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 00:18:08 +0000 From: Sandra & Mario <sam @INRETE.IT> Subject: The Tango Calendar Dear Tango friends, we are very happy to inform you that our Association, El Barrio Tanguero of Torino, Italy has finally published its first Tango Calendar. It is a project started in the past springtime with the Patronage of Province and the City of Torino involving the young pupils of the Albertine Academy of Fine Arts; we asked them to write, paint drawings about Tango, in the way they liked. We promised them an Exibition and the publication on a calendar. We received about twenty works and making a selection we choose twelve drawings for the twelve months of the year. It was also hard the choice of the place where to place the exibition: for a communion of arguments we though fine to look for in the older part of our city, actually immigration zone. Past thursday, in spite of the falling rain, in the Molasso Court, Borgo Dora Street, Porta Palazzo zone, we inaugurated the Show of drawings and published the Calendar of the year 2000 to the fearless people. We also provided to enrich the event with the Tango sound of the quartet "Che' Tango" of Miguel Acosta, that excited the people up to the point to make them dancing over the stones of the court. Honestly we must confess that a glass of good wine greatly helped the success of the evening. We are telling you all this because now we are proposing the calendar to all Tango Association and Tango lovers: for Itl. 20.000 (USD. 13.00) you can have the first calendar about tango, realized with works of young artists on polished paper and with twelve drawings, one per month. Shortly will be available on our web site the thumbnails of some drawings. Looking forward to read you, we send a big CIAO. Sandra & Mario El Barrio Tanguero - Torino - ITALY sam @inrete.it http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Musee/9244/

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 10:37:08 +1300 From: Alex White <alex_tangofirulete @XTRA.CO.NZ> Subject: del tanguero neocelandes - mi bandoneon Buenos Dias Queridos compadres tangueros! Totally spontaneously - at about 2am last night - I decided to have a practise of my AA Bandoneon (one of those really good-looking ones with mother of pearl flowers as decorations). I'm trying to learn "Mi BsAs querido" now, and Have nearly got my favourite (or one of them) song "Bahia Blanca" by Carlos di Sarli. I played it so well once that I wish I'd recorded myself...Wow - it's a wonderful instrument. (I busk occasionally to get more practise). I played the Trumpet for a few years -many moons ago... so my music theory isn't that hot. Unfortunately this makes learning how to play a bit trickier.....to top it off - there's no Bandoneon teachers in New Zealand (as far as I know). I don't know but somehow playing the bandoneon for me is like singing from the soul - When I lived in BsAs I loved to go for walks along the pedestrian streets: Florida and Lavalle. - searching for my tanguero amigos, also any bandoneonistas. Whom I'd easily spend an hour or two listening - totally transfixed to the instrument, the music, and the pasionate way it was played. I have quite a good collection of Tango sheet Music - which I gathered from my Bandoneon teacher Guru. N.B: I found it really hard to find much good tango music a BsAs. So it pays to get any from where-ever one can. Which brings me on to ask: Does anyone have any tango music for Bandoneones? - also perchance know of any bandoneon teachers / other's with tuned and playable bandoneones in N.Z. or Australia.? I am a 22 yr old tango aficionado/ & addict who teaches tango (also Salsa, Merengue) as a profession. I'm from Wellington, New Zealand. Yes I was also at CITA- 99. I was the only new Zealander there. If you met me you'd certainly remember. I'm 1,95cm tall, long blond hair, and blue eyes. I'm constructing my web page: www.come.to/tango_firulete -have a look :) Sending a big hug and kisses to all those sharing my addiction, pasion and enthusiasim. un abrazo para los tanguerazos Happy dancing Alex White TANGO FIRULETE alex_tangofirulete @yahoo.com Ph: +(64 4) 567-9406 +64 (0)21 254 3891 Tango argentino classes; Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays. http://www.come.to/tango_firulete :)

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 04:27:48 +0100 From: Mark von Rahden Subject: saludo! tango in english Hello listees I have updated the tango events calendar and added a translation tool - use with care! http://www.saludo.de/ Mark von Rahden

End of TANGO-L Digest - 16 Nov 1999 to 17 Nov 1999 (#1999-65) *************************************************************