Maria de Buenos Aires

A new production and original concept for Piazzolla's tango opera "Maria de Buenos Aires", first created for Cincinnati Opera and later modified for an intimate cabaret setting for Florida Grand Opera. The production sold out at both companies and became the sleeper hit of their respective seasons.

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FLORIDA GRAND OPERA SIZZLES...The event drew a young, multicultural audience that was highly attentive and clearly involved in the immediacy of the music and drama...Jose Maria Condemi’s theater in the round production utilized the small stage, covered bar area and large courtyard, the music and action coming from all directions and vividly recreated the bustling, dangerous metropolis of Buenos Aires at the heart of Piazzolla’s work. Condemi’s fast-paced staging captured Piazzolla’s tale of sadness and tragedy beneath the dance’s sensual allure...This innovative and arresting double bill should not be missed by opera lovers seeking an alternative to the familiar Verdi-Puccini canon.

Laurence Budmen (South Florida Classical Review), Mar, 22, 2013

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INGENIOUS... Directed by Argentine native Jose Maria Condemi, it was ingenious. The Ballroom itself was the stage, with the audience seated at tables and chairs cabaret-style, surrounding three wooden platforms and framed at one end by the instrumentalists. The Ballroom bar to one side made a perfect setting for supernumeraries to gather, gape, smoke and drink. The characters made entrances and exits through the audience and the platforms served as loci for the action, including María’s stabbing and funeral, her return as the Shadow in a black trench coat and a very explicit rape scene in which the Shadow conceives a “new” Maria.

Mary Ellyn Hutton (Concerto Net), Jul, 25, 2012

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