[Tango-L] Report on the Tango Festival & Mundial Buenos Aires 2011

[Shahrukh Merchant]

The festival opened on Tuesday, Aug 16 (and runs through Aug 30). I 
stopped in for music performances on the 17th and 18th. Here is a brief 
report:

The location this year is the Buenos Aires Expo Center (Centro de 
Exposiciones) at Av. Pueyrredón and Av. Figuero Alcorta, en Recoleta, 
next to the Facultad de Derecho. It's a rather unattractive structure, 
industrial looking with awkward access, but they've done a reasonable 
enough job on the interior, and I'm guessing it's the only relatively 
economical large space they could get to accommodate a few thousand 
people at a time with various parallel events going on under one roof.

The main space is mostly one huge open space, with a large stage/concert 
area at one end (called the Escenario Horacio Salgán, after the 
well-known pianist and orchestra leader, still living at 95, and at 
least a couple of years ago was occasionally even performing briefly). 
There is seating at this concert area for 1500 people with a large open 
standing area behind and on the sides for well for well over 1000 more. 
You should not have problems finding at least standing room for pretty 
much any concert being held there, and if you get there 1/2 hour 
earlier, you will certainly get very good seating.

In the same large open area is a large dance floor (with a synthetic 
smooth material covering what would otherwise be a concrete floor). 
There seems to be non-stop dancing going on there. When there is no 
class, there is recorded music playing, unless a concert is going on at 
the main stage in which case you can dance to whatever live music is 
playing! There were a number of quite proficient social dancers on the 
floor both times I went.

There is a second concert area called Escenario Horacio Ferrer (after 
well-known Tango poet/lyricist and author of a well-known Tango 
historical literary work--the work most likely to be familiar to some 
readers would be "María de Buenos Aires," the Tango opera composed by 
Piazzolla, to which he wrote the libretto). This was supposed to be in a 
similarly sized space connected to the main area but apparently there 
was some bureaucratic disagreement with Teatro Colón (which I guess owns 
or has rights to that other space), so it was relocated to a much 
smaller space of just about 300 seats with a separate building entrance 
to the right of the main entrance. If you want to see a show that is 
supposed to be held there, you should (a) make sure it hasn't been 
relocated to what has now ended up becoming the main stage and, if not 
(b) show up and stand in line 1/2 hour before the starting time to get a 
good seat (or even get in).

At the one performance I saw at the Escenario Horacio Ferrer, Mr. 
Horacio Ferrer himself showed up unannounced and was sitting in the 
audience (but was recognized and introduced from the stage)!

Tonight I saw two performances--the one that would be more familiar to 
most readers would be Orquesta Sans Souci playing pretty much standard 
Caló (it was a homage to Osmar Maderna, Caló's pianist and arranger 
until he died an untimely death). The other rather more unusual one (OK, 
it was weird ...) was a combination of Jairo (Argentine pop/folk singer) 
singing with classical Tango guitarist Leonardo Sánchez, and backed up 
by a large classical chamber orchestra of a dozen or so string 
instruments (violins, violas, cellos, bass). I'm not sure I'm quite 
ready to get that CD ...

Getting back to the rest of the main area, one entire side is a vendors' 
area, mostly comprising Tango shoe vendors (they seem to have the 
highest advertising budget and probably outbid everyone else--at least 
now you know why Tango shoes are so expensive). Another section is an 
exhibit devoted to Carlos Gardel, and there is an interesting little 
"radio broadcasting booth" where old-time Tango singers were singing for 
what was apparently a live radio broadcast.

This was just the 3rd of 15 days (my second day), and I will absolutely 
try to go to something as many of the remaining days as I can. The depth 
and breadth of Tango performances is just amazing, and here I am 
referring to music performances, since remember that, in Argentina and 
to Argentines, the core of Tango is absolutely the music (including or 
rather especially the poetry of the lyrics), with the dance being a very 
distant second. Tango dancing is very much a fringe phenomenon in 
Argentina as far as most of the population is concerned, but Tango music 
is very much in the hearts of souls of most porteños and many other 
Argentines as well (even those who profess to hate it).

Having said that, the climax of the festival will be the finals of the 
Mundial Salon and Stage dance competitions, to be held in a different 
and even larger venue--Luna Park (which is a large indoor stadium) on 
Aug 29 and 30. If you are in Buenos Aires and want to attend, you must 
stand in line this Monday the 22nd, perhaps 1 hour earlier than the 11 
am opening time at Av. de Mayo 575 to get tickets, which will be given 
away free till they run out (probably later that day). You can only get 
2 tickets to ONE of the finals (you have to choose Salon or Stage) plus 
2 more tickets to ONE of the semi-finals (Salon or Stage). You cannot 
get tickets to BOTH the finals, for example, unless you go with another 
person (or find someone else in line who wants to do the same).

Tomorrow (Friday) night is a not-to-be-missed night: "La Orquesta de 
Salgán" with bandoneonistas Leopoldo Federico, Néstor Marconi, Ernesto 
Baffa, Julio Pane & Juan José Mosalini, with César Salgán (son of 
Horacio Salgán) at the piano. This at 8 pm, followed at 10 pm by the 
very different "Piazzolla plays Piazzolla" (Astor Piazzolla's grandson, 
jazz drummer Daniel Piazzolla with his group Escalandrum, playing 
compositions by grandpa).

And, of course, it's all free. For all the details, see:

http://www.tangobuenosaires.gob.ar/festivalymundial11/web/index.php/en/index.html

This is the English version of the website but don't be confused if you 
see mostly Spanish--apparently they don't get around to translating the 
daily updates into English, but the program details are in both languages.

Shahrukh