Fort Worth Opera (FWOpera) announced today the thrilling cast and artistic team behind the company’s production of Astor Piazzolla’s tango opera, María de Buenos Aires, which opens the 2018 Fort Worth Opera Festival on April 27, 2018. Praised for her “smouldering stage presence” (New York Times), and richly-hued voice” (BBC Music Magazine), Argentinean mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian stars as the ill-fated María, a young woman living in the slums of Buenos Aires, who finds herself seduced by the sounds of tango.
Commanding Mexican-American baritone Luis Alejandro Orozco, reprises his acclaimed role of El Payador, the traveling, romantic balladeer. Rounding out this talented cast is three-time Emmy-winning journalist, SuperLatina TV host, and best-selling author Gaby Natale, who plays the mischievous El Duende.
Stage director, choreographer, and librettist John de los Santos (Frontiers, Carmen, Salome) returns to Fort Worth to bring his singular interpretation of Piazzolla’s magnum opus to life, exploring the passion, seduction, torment, and redemption of librettist Horacio Ferrer’s fallen heroine. Maestro Scott Terrell, international guest conductor and Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic, leads a chamber ensemble of musicians from the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, alongside Argentinean bandoneon player Juan Pablo Jofre, and a group of tango dancers.
In this intoxicating, genre-bending production, renowned set designer Liliana Duque Piñeiro will transport audiences to the brutal barrios of Buenos Aires and into a disturbingly beautiful vision of the underworld.
María de Buenos Aires
Music by Astor Piazzolla; libretto by Horacio Ferrer
April 27, May 5, 2018
Bass Performance Hall, downtown Fort Worth
In Spanish with supertitles in English and Spanish
Cast
Solange Merdinian* (María)
Luis Alejandro Orozco* (El Payador)
Gaby Natale* (El Duende)
Artistic Team
Scott Terrell,* conductor
John de los Santos, director, choreographer
Chad Jung, lighting designer
Liliana Duque Piñeiro,* set designer
*denotes Fort Worth Opera debut season
TICKETS: All seating for María de Buenos Aires is general admission. Tickets are $75 and on sale now. For more information, please call 817.731.0726 or toll-free at 1.877.396.7372. Tickets also available online.
