MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES

Astor Piazzolla composer Horacio Ferrer lyricist

Valentina Montoya Martínez Nicholas Mulroy Juanjo Lopez Vidal narrator

Victor Villena bandoneón Mr McFall's Chamber Astor Piazzolla composer Horacio Ferrer lyricist MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES (1921–1992) (1933–2014)

PART 1 (CD1)

1 Cuadro 1: Alevare [6:21] 2 Cuadro 2: Tema de María María’s Theme [4:53] Valentina Montoya Martínez Juanjo Lopez Vidal 3 Cuadro 3: Balada renga para un organito loco Lame Ballad for a Crazy Barrel Organ [7:10] María/The Shadow of María The Duende (narrator) 4 Cuadro 4: Yo soy María I am María [3:17] 5 Cuadro 5: Milonga carrieguera por María la Niña Milonga for the Child María [5:16] Nicholas Mulroy Mr McFall’s Chamber (in the style of Evaristo Carriega) The voice of a payador/ 6 Cuadro 6: Fuga y misterio Fugue and Mystery [3:18] Sleepy Buenos Aires Sparrow/ Victor Villena 7 Cuadro 7: Poema valseado Waltzed Poem [2:38] First Psychoanalyst/ Musical director/bandoneón A Voice of That Sunday 8 Cuadro 8: Tocata rea Lowlife Toccata [4:53]

9 Cuadro 9: Miserere canyengue de los ladrones antiguos en las alcantarillas [6:35] Canyengue Miserere of the Old Gutter Thieves

Total playing time (CD1) [44:27] Mr McFall’s Chamber Speaking Chorus Cyril Garac, Robert McFall violins Lisa Eskuche, Tanja Jacobs, Ann McFall, Brian Schiele viola Rhona McLeod, Doreen Rodgers Recorded on 18-19 June 2016 at The Tom Fleming María de Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Su-a Lee cello Brothel-keepers/spaghetti-kneaders/ Centre, Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools, Edinburgh Ferrer published by Warner/Chappell Music Rick Standley double bass Three Marionettes Drunk on Things Producer: Paul Baxter Session photography: Steven Allan Images Engineer: Ben Seal Design: John Christ Alison Mitchell flute/piccolo Roberto Rabinovich Sleepy Buenos Aires Sparrow 24-bit digital editing: Paul Baxter Booklet editor: Henry Howard Malcolm MacFarlane guitar Pedro Castillo, Gustavo Pardo, Roberto Rabinovich 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK Cover image: Dolores Molinari, Caos, acrylic on canvas, www.delphianrecords.co.uk Phil Alexander piano Old thieves/ Magi-Bricklayers/The Men who 2013, fb.com/dolomolinari Ian Sandilands, Stuart Semple percussion Returned from Mystery

Notes on the music

In 1965, the famous Argentinian astrologer same moment. Meanwhile, in Argentina the and subplots. However, such attempts are them, on the other hand, ever doubted for a Horangel, drawing up Astor Piazzolla’s birth government of General Juan Carlos Onganía, based on a misunderstanding. Ferrer recalled moment the quality of their operita. Piazzolla’s chart, predicted that within two years a which had been established by military coup a conversation with Piazzolla during the Tango Nuevo, particularly since his return to man of vital importance to him would come in 1966, was trying to repress all forms of planning of the work in which, from what he Buenos Aires in 1955 from his studies with knocking on his door. In 1967, the Uruguayan ‘immoralism’, including miniskirts, long hair remembered, the composer said: Nadia Boulanger, had been incorporating poet Horacio Ferrer came to call and, because and anything permissive or avant-garde. classical and jazz elements into the more the bell was not working, knocked. Ferrer An example of this state censorship was the What is this thing? I haven’t a clue! On the one cabaret-style tango music which he had grown had dedicated his new volume of poetry, banning, in August 1968, of the Argentinian hand it’s a bit like an oratorio; on the other, a bit like up playing during the late thirties and forties. Romancero Canyengue, to Piazzolla, and it was premiere of Alberto Ginastera’s opera a cantata – but it’s neither one nor the other – nor, Here, in María de Buenos Aires, there are only then that Piazzolla first became aware of Bomarzo, on the grounds of its sexual content. for that matter, is it a musical; even less an opera. fugues and toccatas alongside a wide spread Ferrer as a poet. The composer had previously This was the cultural context in which Piazzolla I have an idea – look – it’s not opera by any stretch of Argentinian music traditions – milonga, known him as the editor and illustrator of a and Ferrer found themselves writing María of the imagination, but just as an opera can be canyengue, candombe, tango and the sparring magazine, Tangueando, which championed de Buenos Aires. The libretto makes mention called a work, or obra, what we have written could verse dialogue typical of the folk song tradition the Nuevo Tango movement which Piazzolla of a Beatle, hippies and girls in blue jeans. It be referred to as a little work, or obrita – so why of the payada. The instrumentation, likewise, was spearheading, as well as the founder of also several times makes play of the adjective don’t we call it an operita? ranges from traditional tango instruments, a club, El Club de la Guardia, which provided zurdo (lefty), and variations on it (zurdamente – such as flute, acoustic guitar, violin and a platform for it. On reading this new volume lefthandedly, a zurda – on the left). The two of them realised that the piece they bandoneón, through to the more contemporary of Ferrer’s poetry, Piazzolla immediately had written lay outside any conventional genre. sound-world of vibraphone, electric guitar and rang him. ‘This book,’ he said, ‘these verses, The original production of María de Buenos If it has antecedents, they are Kurt Weill and drum kit. achieve exactly what I have been trying to Aires, in keeping with the multimedia Bertold Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera and achieve in music. From now on we must experimentation of its times, used a backdrop Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s Horacio Ferrer’s libretto is highly poetic. When work together.’ It was this invitation which of projections, both of film and of slides, West Side Story (The Threepenny Opera, criticised for the fact that the work was difficult led to their collaboration in writing María de created for the work by Adolfo Bronowski. like María de Buenos Aires, plays out among to understand, Ferrer answered that he hadn’t Buenos Aires towards the end of 1967, with its The years 1967 to 1969 saw the creation of pimps, thieves and beggars, while West Side written it to be understood, but to create premiere in May 1968. many new art-forms – not only light shows, but Story even has a heroine called Maria). emotion and atmosphere. In another interview also, for example, rock opera and the concept he said ‘Poetry is not to be read; it is to be 1968 was a year in which almost every album. María de Buenos Aires likewise falls María de Buenos Aires’ first run of recited. It is like music … reading poetry is like country in Europe, both West and East, faced outside traditional forms. Piazzolla and Ferrer performances took place at a Buenos Aires reading a score; it is something that happens widespread student demonstrations; while described it as an operita. People have tended venue called La Planeta. Critical response was in the air, not on paper.’ As with any writer, in North America, civil rights marches, anti- to take this as meaning a small opera or adverse and audiences stayed away, alarmed influences are manifold and diverse, but Lorca Vietnam war demonstrations, hippie love-ins, operetta, and many productions have tried to by reports of the obscure libretto and the is definitely one, especially the poetry from his and the early stages of the feminist, ecology turn it into one, introducing dance, inventing surreal plot. Both Piazzolla and Ferrer incurred surrealist phase. The title of Ferrer’s collection and gay rights movements all erupted at the new storylines and creating new characters large personal debts as a result. Neither of of poems about Buenos Aires’ low life, Notes on the music

Romancero Canyengue, is a direct reference street slang of Buenos Aires, with biblical What happens in the operita? María is born The first half of the operita is filled with the to Lorca’s Romancero Gitano. On the other language and references to religious ritual and in poverty on the outside of town. She grows imagery of Easter, and moves towards the hand, Ferrer’s mythologising of criminal street the occult. He incorporates many allusions up and moves to the middle of the city, to passion and death of María – finishes, if you culture follows in the footsteps of Borges who specific to Buenos Aires street life – to the cabaret underworld, a world of old gutter like, on Good Friday; the second begins with raised the mythical gangsters of the past to the gambling, to horse racing, to tango poets of thieves, brothel-keepers, pickpockets, tarts María’s descent into Hell, but then moves on status of epic heroes: the past (Discépolo, Olivari), to city landmarks and pimps, where things go wrong for her. to her resurrection, to an annunciation and a – and uses not only many lunfardo words, but Above all, it is the bandoneón who corrupts miraculous birth – the birth of a new María as Where are those who felt no hatred, also a number of neologisms. her, in revenge for which the Duende cuts the the Christmas bells ring out. lust for money or love bandoneón down the middle with a ‘verse like But lived and died by the knife? Who is María? Ferrer often said that she was a pickaxe’. María dies and goes to hell (‘There The characters in the operita are often fleeting; Although these vicious daggers – a representation of Buenos Aires itself. She is goes María’s shadow to her other hell …’). fantastical, and for the most part observers, or that other dagger, closely associated with tango (‘María tango, Her shadow wanders around the city and they come and go throughout the piece: the Time itself, have been lost in the mud, slum María,/María night, María fatal passion,/ encounters, in one of the infernal circles, a Sleepy Sparrow (in lunfardo a ‘sparrow’ can Today, beyond time and ill-fated death, María of love, of Buenos Aires, that’s me!’). chorus of psychoanalysts. To one of them she mean a bad character), a payador (a gaucho Those dead people live on in tango. (Tango, 1958) On one level her death and resurrection in opens up about the traumas of growing up in itinerant singer), The Voice of That Sunday, the piece represent tango’s fall from grace poverty (‘Of the endless greys of the past/I can The Men who Returned from Mystery and María de Buenos Aires was composed in in the fifties and sixties and its subsequent only remember/That one cruel mystery that some old gutter thieves, as well as brothel- the months after the release of The Beatles’ disinterment and reinvention by the authors of screamed at me:/“Be born!”’) By this stage the keepers, psychoanalysts, Three Marionettes Magical Mystery Tour. Although hallucinogenic the present operita themselves. However, on narrator, the Duende, has thoroughly entered Drunk on Things, Magi-Bricklayers, spaghetti- drugs don’t appear to have played any part in a deeper level the character of María cannot be the story he is himself narrating; brooding kneaders and spectators. The only two who Ferrer’s creative process, his surrealist libretto pinned down to such a narrow interpretation. in his local, magical bar over the loss of the appear throughout the piece are María herself seems to be breathing some of the same air Certainly she is the quintessence of her city adored heroine of his narrative, he attracts the (albeit transformed, following her death at as the psychedelic pop lyrics of the day, while (‘I am my city!’) and of the tango street culture, attention of three drunken marionettes, who what might be called the end of the first ‘act’, its distortions of time are reminiscent of that but, at the same time, she is repeatedly decide to help him bring about the birth of a into The Shadow of María) and the speaking adopted grandfather of psychedelia, Lewis described in a way which associates her with new María. They ‘run amok in the streets of character, the Duende, a spirit-being who Carroll. For example, during the operita the the Virgin Mary or, indeed, Christ. More than Buenos Aires, looking for the seed of a child narrates the story and, in the second half of main character, María, experiences a whole anything María is essential womanhood, and, for the Shadow of María’. Soon the Shadow the operita, enters into and helps to steer the lifetime and a half (birth, death, rebirth and birth although on one level she is fatally corrupted by of María goes into labour. Nearby, Magi- plot. In the first run of the piece in 1968, but of a daughter), while, for the other characters, it the cabaret culture of her city (in particular, by Bricklayers and spaghetti-kneaders tremble also many times subsequently, the part of the seems that only a few days have elapsed. the bad, bad bandoneón), what shines through and hallucinate as a result of the coming Duende was played by Horacio Ferrer himself, in her character more than anything is her miracle (“What have they put in the drinks and there is an overlap between real-life writer One striking aspect of Ferrer’s language is essential incorruptibility (‘and yet, the heart/ that/There’s a gang of little stars where the and the character he had created and was his bringing together of lunfardo, the criminal Has refused to be worse’). olives used to be?”). The new María is born. acting: both adore María and all she stands for; Notes on the music Text and translation – Part 1 both narrate; and both are agents in her has it that he was known, from time to time, Cuadro 1: Alevare Scene 1: Alevare [the beginning of a tango] resurrection and, therefore, in the resurgence to descend to the hotel bar, declaim passages of the tango culture which is such a part of her. from María de Buenos Aires to the drinkers El Duende: The Duende: there, and then disappear again upstairs. It is Ahora que es la hora y que un rumor Now that the time has come and a murmur Piazzolla and Ferrer continued to work together tempting to picture him as the Duende, who, de yerba mora of black nightshade after María de Buenos Aires, but mostly on in the operita’s ‘magical bar’, ‘Came along to trasnocha en tu silencio, por un poro Remains awake in your silence, through a pore individual songs, such as the highly successful tell the tale –/Has lost a shadow/And, in his de este asfalto in this asphalt Balada para un loco. Their only other work for drunkenness, keeps calling it.’ yo habré de conjurar tu voz … Ahora que I must conjure up your voice … now that the the stage was the 1971 oratorio, El pueblo es la hora. time has come. joven, commissioned by Saarbrücken’s © 2017 Robert McFall Channel 2 TV in Germany. Ferrer continued Ahora que ya has muerto para siempre Now that you are forever dead, and my blonde to compose oratorios for the stage, but with I am indebted to Nicolá Deheza’s thesis y van de asalto, witches are partying other composers, such as Horacio Salgán ‘Proyecto Final de Licenciatura en Artes del por vos, mis brujas rubias a tanguear For you, tangoing hot masses and Juan José Mosalini. In 1976, Ferrer Teatro y Escenografía’, University del Salvador, misas calientes at dawn moved to a flat above the Hotel Alvear, in the Buenos Aires, for many observations and facts al alba, con sus lerdas putañías de contraltos; With their dull, low, tarts’ litanies; Recoleta district of Buenos Aires. Anecdote in my article. Ahora que tu amor se fue a baraja y, Now that your love threw in its hand and, zurdamente, lefthandedly, con una extraña arcada canallesca With a strange, mean ark in the rings under en cada ojera, each eye, te ardió una cruz de vino en la tiniebla Burnt the wine cross of a hangover in the de la frente; darkness of your brow;

Ahora que en la sórdida tensión filibustera Now that in the sordid, gangsterish tension de un clave bien trampeado tocan tangos Of a well tampered clavier con tus huesos the sleepless las manos desveladas de un Caín Hands of a Cain and a street walker play tangos y una trotera; with your bones; Text and translation – Part 1

Ahora que el rencor, con rabia y pólvora Now that spite, with rage and a penny’s worth Ahora que es la hora. Humo zaino y Now that the time has come, chestnut fog de un peso of gunpowder yerba mora … and black nightshade … gatilla, en su plegado bandoneón, Triggers, in its pleated bandoneón, Penacho de relente, ya tu voz - A plume of night-dew, your voice, María-like, la hechicería the witchcraft of a blow maríamente- vendrá Will come up with your memory, here, small de un golpe en Ay Menor para el costado In Ouch minor for the side of con tu memoria, aquí, pequeña y una, ahora. and one, now. de tus besos; your kisses; Ahora que es tu hora: María de Now that your time has come, María of Ahora que ya estás de nunca más, Niña María, Now that you are never more, child María, Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires. yo mezclaré un puñado de esa voz I shall blend a handful of that bandoneonera, bandoneón voice Cuadro 2: Tema de María (instrumental) Scene 2: María’s Theme (instrumental) que aún quema en tu garganta, con un poco That still burns in your throat, with a little bit de la mía, of mine, María responde a esa convocatoria y aparece María responds to this appeal and appears encarnada en su voz en un tema de tango, embodied in her voice in a tango theme, Con borra de recuerdos, fiato negro With dregs of memories, black breath, and the ‘Tema de María’. El tango es el lenguaje de ‘María’s theme’. The tango is María’s language, y carraspera dapple-grey hoarse note María, aqui una canción sin palabras. and it is here a song without words. tordilla de un bordón. Así, del íntimo Of a bass string. Thus, from your intimate extramuro goodbye on the outskirts of porteño de tu adiós, atravesando las fronteras Buenos Aires, crossing the simple frontiers Cuadro 3: Balada renga para un Scene 3: Lame Ballad for a Crazy organito loco Barrel Organ Sencillas de la muerte, he de traer tu Of death, I shall bring up your canto oscuro. dark song. La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador (gaucho itinerant singer): Tendrá la edad de Dios y dos antiguas It will be the same age as God and have Pianito de mala racha Luckless little piano mataduras: two old stigmata: que muele cuentos … ¡a ver! Which grinds out stories … let’s see un odio a diestra; y, a zurda, una ternura. On the right, hate, and on the left tenderness. ¡Si muestra el rengo en la hilacha If the lame man shows Y al duro And to the hard de su valse, a la muchacha, The true colours of his waltz to the girl, la que nadie quiere ver! She who no-one wants to see! Y dulce son fantasma de sus ecos, And sweet ghostly sound of its echoes, las futuras Marías, the Marías-to-be, Voces de los Hombres que Volvieron del Misterio: Voices of Men who Returned from Mystery: repechando Santa Fe rumbo a otra aurora, Climbing up Santa Fe Avenue towards a new day, Que moje el Diablo en garnacha Let the Devil dip his gammy leg se apurarán temblando sin saber por qué Will tremble and hurry, su renga pata al moler. In Garnacha wine as he grinds. se apuran … not knowing why … Text and translation – Part 1

La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador: El Duende: The Duende: El tiempo muestra la hilacha, Time shows its true colours Y dos angelotes de la guarda parda, dos raros And two chubby, dreary angels, two strange ¡y nadie la quiere ver! And no one wants to see them. palomos que andaban de trote por la orilla doves that trotted along the flat shore, brought the ñata, trajeron -llorando- a la Niña en el lomo. Child – crying – on their back. On the dark El Duende: The Duende: En la cal mulata del último muro, plegando de rendering of the last wall, folding their tin wings in Ella vino desde aquella dimensión She came from that dimension out beyond pena las alas de lata, grabaron su nombre: sadness, they wrote her name, María, with dark transbarriotera donde alcanza, a la esperanza, the town where a fence and a road are María, con balas morenas. De arena y de frío bullets. They created her days out of sand and una barrera y un camino; la campana, tres reached by hope; the bell, three stars, an eye le hicieron los días, ¡tan duros! Y, a espaldas cold – so hard! And on the further bank of the estrellas, una ojera en el balcón sombroso, ringed with shadows on the shady balcony, del río, allá donde el río se junta a la nada, la river, where the river meets nothingness, the un gol, la plaza … El sol sin prisa de una misa a goal, the square … The unhurried sun of a Niña María creció en siete días. child María grew up in seven days. con mañanas y vecinos y torcazas; algunos mass with mornings, neighbours, and doves; mozos que le dén a las polleras; y un andén, some boys excited by skirts; and a railway La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador : con otro humo y otra pena y otro tren para la platform with another smoke and another Zapada de contrasuerte, Zapada [a tango improvisation] of ill fortune, espera. Una novena, una ramera, un sorrow and another train to wait for, a novena, Milonga a suerte y verdad, Milonga of luck and truth almacén. a hooker, a corner shop. que un bordón de mala muerte Which a rough bass string strumming – -sin llorarte ni quererte- Without crying about you or loving you either – La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador : fraseaba en tu soledad … Was playing in your loneliness … La pequeña nació un día The wee girl was born on a day que estaba borracho Dios: When God was drunk; Voces de los Hombres que Volvieron del Misterio: Voices of Men who Returned from Mystery: por eso, en su voz, dolían That’s why three bolshie nails Pequeña … ¡Qué inversa suerte Little girl, what twisted luck tres clavos zurdos … Sounded out the pain in her voice … saber toda la verdad! To know the whole truth! ¡Nacía She was born con un insulto en la voz! With a curse in her voice! La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador: La zapada de la muerte The zapada of death Voces de los Hombres que Volvieron del Misterio: Voices of Men who Returned from Mystery: punteaba en su soledad. Played in its loneliness. Tres clavos chuecos … Un día Three crooked nails on a day que estaba mufado Dios. When God was in a bad mood. El Duende: El Duende: Como esta ciudad, de duelo y de fiesta, Like this city, of grieving and partying, stolen from La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador : robada a las brujas terrajas y en celo que low-life witches on heat who drive life on, María Tres clavos negros … Un día Three black nails empujan la vida, María fue un poco del loco was part of the deranged insomnia of each que estaba de estaño Dios. On a day when God was propping up the bar. desvelo de cada baraja suicida y vacía jugada suicidal and empty poker hand played on a lost a la apuesta perdida de la soledad. Fue el gamble of loneliness. She was the verse of Text and translation – Part 1 verso de antojo broncao en la puerta del impulsive anger at the door of first failure and La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador : primer fracaso y la rosa tuerta de un payaso the one-eyed rose of a limping clown. Goddess Triste María de Buenos Aires … Sad María of Buenos Aires … cojo. Diosa y atorrante, del cielo y del hampa and waster, from the heavens and from the fue trampa lo mismo. Y atados de un pelo underworld, she was all the same a trap. El Duende: The Duende: por el alba van, su parte de abismo,su parte And, tied up by a hair, through the dawn they go, De olvido eres Forgotten art thou de pan. part abyss and part bread. entre todas las mujeres. Amongst all women.

La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador : Y en el barrio, las arpías In the neighbourhood, the harpies, Cuadro 4: Yo soy María Scene 4: I am María viejas de negro capuz Old women in black hoods, María: María: como en una eucaristía As in a filthy Eucharist, mugrentera, por María Pray for María in lunfardo slang, ¡Yo soy María de Buenos Aires! I am María of Buenos Aires! rezan lunfardos en cruz. Their arms outstretched. De Buenos Aires María ¿no ven quién soy yo? María of Buenos Aires, don’t you see who I am? ¡María tango, María del arrabal! María tango, slum María, Voces de los Hombres que Volvieron del Misterio: Voices of Men who Returned from Mystery: ¡María noche, María pasión fatal! María night, María fatal passion, Allá en el barrio, María, There in the neighbourhood, María, ¡María del amor! ¡De Buenos Aires soy yo! María of love, of Buenos Aires, that’s me! ¡le han puesto nombre a tu cruz! Your cross has been named! Yo soy María de Buenos Aires I am María of Buenos Aires La voz de un payador: The voice of a payador: si en este barrio la gente pregunta If people in the neighbourhood should ask María de Agorería, María of the prophecy, quién soy, who I am, tendrás dos tangos por cruz … You will have two tangos far a cross … pronto muy bien lo sabrán Soon the women who envy me las hembras que me envidiarán, Will know it very well El Duende: The Duende: ¡y cada macho a mis pies And every macho will fall at my feet Pero aquellos hombres, los rudos maestros But those men, the rough masters of my como un ratón en mi trampa ha de caer! As if a mouse had fallen into my trap! de mi tristería, que saben del mudo sadness, who know about the quiet rolling up of arremango que cabe a ese nombre, y han sleeves which that name evokes, and have come ¡Yo soy María de Buenos Aires! I am María of Buenos Aires! vuelto -a su modo- tan lerdos, tan serios de back – as they do – so slowly, so solemnly, from all ¡Soy la más bruja cantando y I’m the utmost witch both at singing todos los nuestros misterios, cuando hay our mysteries, when there is full-bodied suffering amando también! and loving. pena llena canyengueando el aire de las dancing a canyengue [form of tango] in the thick Si el bandoneón me provoca … ¡Tiará, tatá! If the bandoneón arouses me … tia-ra, ta-ta! curderías, lo nombran -apenas- ladrando fug of the bars – give it a name, uncertainly, Le muerdo fuerte la boca … ¡Tiará, tatá! I bite it hard on its mouth … tia-ra, ta-ta! a su recuerdo la sombra de los tangos que barking out to her memory the shadow of past ¡Con diez espasmos en flor que yo tengo en With ten flowering spasms that I hold within ya fueron y no existen todavía. tangos and of those that don’t yet exist. mi ser! my being! Text and translation – Part 1

Siempre me digo ¡Dale María! I always say to myself, ‘Go for it, María!’ (recitado) Zaina la voz, la cadera, (spoken) Chestnut is her voice, her hips, ¡Cuando un misterio me viene trepando When a mystery comes climbing la crencha y los pechos zainos, her mane and her breasts are chestnut. en la voz! up my voice le van, de furca, en la espalda, She is carrying as a yoke on her back Y canto un tango que nadie jamás cantó And I sing a tango nobody ever sang before las ganas de veinte machos. The desires of twenty men. y sueño un sueño que nadie jamás soñó, And I dream a dream nobody ever dreamt before, ¡porque el mañana es hoy con el ayer Because tomorrow is today and then comes (cantado) De renoche, cuando llueve (sung) Late at night, when it’s raining, después, che! yesterday, man! siempre igual -siempre- en su patio, always the same – always – in her courtyard le cuentan tangos de hadas the mouths of the underground station ¡Yo soy María de Buenos Aires! I am María of Buenos Aires! las bocas del subterráneo. tell her fairy tangos. De Buenos Aires María ¡yo soy mi ciudad! Of Buenos Aires María, I am my city! ¡María tango, María del arrabal! María tango, slum María, Setenta veces los siete Seventy times seven ¡María noche, María pasión fatal! María night, María fatal passion, vientos del Sur, la han alzado; Winds of the south have lifted her; ¡María del amor! ¡De Buenos Aires soy yo! María of love! Of Buenos Aires, that’s me! sólo a mi voz ella entorna Only to my voice does she turn su piel, su rosa y sus años. Her skin, her pink, and her years.

Cuadro 5: Milonga carrieguera por Scene 5: Milonga for the Child María María: María: María la Niña (in the style of Evaristo Carriega) Porteño gorrión con sueño, Sleepy sparrow of Buenos Aires, Porteño Gorrión con Sueño (cantado): Sleepy Buenos Aires Sparrow (sung): vos nunca me alcanzarás. You’ll never catch up with me. Soy rosa de un no te quiero, I’m like a rose that says I don’t love you, En los ojos de mi niña, In the eyes of my child, ya nunca me alcanzarás. You’ll never catch up with me now. contracompás de otros llantos, Offbeat of other upsets, anda una oscura nostalgia There is a dark nostalgia Porteño Gorrión con Sueño (cantado): Sleepy Buenos Aires Sparrow (sung): de cosas que aún no han pasado. For things that have not yet happened. Te irás de noche, María You’ll go at night, María, de este cantón porteñato, From this district of Buenos Aires La calle le echó los naipes The street told her fortune with the cards of hate, con la trenza destrenzada With your plaits undone de odiar, recontramarcados, With cards that were marked; y el sueño desabrochado. And your dreams in tatters. la madre hilaba perezas; Her mother wove laziness; y el padre arriaba fracasos. And her father herded up failures. Y los pardos camioneros And the dark truck-drivers que estiban bronca al mercado Who hump their anger around the market La vieja tristonguería The old, sad, tango bar te harán un ramo de grelos Will put together for you a bouquet of turnip tops del blues de los lunfardarios, With the lunfardo Buenos Aires blues y un coro de navajazos. And a choir of knife wounds. da un qué sé yo a mi María Gives a certain I don’t know what to my María y otro al lomo de su gato. And a something else to her cat’s back. Text and translation – Part 1

Mas allá, en los masalláses Far beyond in the far-beyond Cuadro 7: Poema valseado Scene 7: Waltzed Poem nocheteros y enwhiskados, Night-time whisky sessions, dos hippies de barba zurda Two hippies with lefty beards María: María: la insultarán con milagros. Will insult her with miracles. Un bandoneón que mi tristeza tiene escrita, A bandoneón which keeps a record of hoy dos temblores me ha mezclado en my sadness (recitado) Las rubias mandragoneras (spoken) The mandrake blondes la garganta: Has today mixed two tremors in my throat: de un zodíaco mulato, of a half-caste zodiac con gusto a Sur, me dió el temblor With a taste of the South it gave me the tremor le harán trece mordeduras will give her thirteen bites de Milonguita, of Milonguita, en las líneas de la mano. in the lifelines of her hand. y otro -peor- ¡que sabe a Norte And the other a worse one that tastes of the y nadie canta! North and nobody sings! (cantado) Y su beso, que era un poco (sung) And her kiss, which was a bit de azafrán y de desgano, Of both saffron and indifference, Del bandoneón, que huele a sombra From the bandoneón that smells of the shadow se sabrá a página entera Will taste of a full page spread de macroses, of pimps, ¡como si fuera un asalto! As if it were an armed bank raid! oigo el arcángel de la prostibulería, I hear the archangel of brotheldom frasear su acorde canallesco a siete voces Sound his mean chord in seven voices Setenta veces los siete Seventy times they will have stolen que suenan siete y son -siempre- la mía. That sound like seven and are – always – mine. asombros le habrán robado, Seven surprises from her, le quedarán tres: el mío Three will remain: mine Si hasta el abrazo de morir me siento en celo, If I feel on heat even in the grasp of death y los ojos de su gato. And the eyes of her cat. y me lo arranco un poco en cada gatería, And I tear it up a bit with each client ¡qué duelo habrá que ya no alcance a ser What mourning will there be that will no longer María: María: mi duelo! be my mourning! Porteño Gorrión con Sueño, Sleepy Sparrow of Buenos Aires ¡qué parda trampa que no pueda ser ya mía! What dark trap that can no longer be mine! ya nunca me alcanzarás … You’ll never catch me … Y seré un resto de ceniza entanguecida; And I’ll be the remains of tangoed ashes; Porteño Gorrión con Sueño: Sleepy Buenos Aires Sparrow: y el medio amor, desde el final, me hará And half-hearted love, from the end, Mi voz, en todas las voces My voice, in all voices su guiño, will wink at me, para siempre sentirás. You will always feel. y, aún, arderé, por dos monedas, otra vida, And I’ll still burn another life for two coins, sobre un lunático repliegue del corpiño. Over a lunatic fold in my bra. Cuadro 6: Fuga y misterio (instrumental) Scene 6: Fugue and Mystery (instrumental) Seré más triste, más descarte, más robada I’ll be sadder, more discarded, more cheated que el tango atroz que nadie ha sido todavía; Than the cruel tango that no-one has yet been; María, tal como presagiara el Porteño Gorrión María, as foreseen by the Sleepy Sparrow, y a Dios daré, muerta y de trote hacia la nada, And, dead and trotting off towards nothingness, con Sueño, se marcha de noche de su barrio leaves her neighbourhood at night and goes el espasmódico temblor de I’ll give God the trembling spasm of y atraviesa, silenciosa y alucinada, la ciudad. through the city silently in a trance. cien Marías … a hundred Marías … Text and translation – Part 1

Un nuevo viento de la rosa de los vientos A new wind from the rose of the winds a punto de Macumba. Y, allá, As they build up to a ritual; and there, remueve el son de un bandoneón en mi retiro. Stirs up the sound of a bandoneón in my retreat en los trascartones on the back of the card Y el bandoneón tiene una bala en el aliento And the bandoneón has a bullet in its breath del Mal, sangrar del turbio marfil Of iniquity, bleeding from the stained ivory para gritar mi muerte al son de un To shout my death with the sound of a de los botones of the buttons, sólo tiro … single shot … la voz de la pequeña, ¡con todo el The voice of the young girl, with all her beso afuera! kiss showing! Cuadro 8: Tocata rea Scene 8: Lowlife Toccata ¿Adónde la enterraste? ¡Me cache! Si ella era Where did you bury her? Damn me! She was El Duende (al bandoneón): The Duende (to the bandoneón): el poco misterio que un Dios atribulado, The little bit of mystery that a troubled God un pobre Dios porteño que amaba a gave us, Goteaban un absorto prestigio de glicinas The wounds of your bellows dripped an absorbed su manera, A poor God of Buenos Aires who loved in his las llagas de tu fuelle. Y el eco de un rosario Prestige of wisterias; and your folds were nos dió, para que siempre -por dentro- own way, tangueado eran tus pliegues, cinchando The echo of a tango rosary, working hard on nos siguiera So that forever – inside – a question would keep en la barcina the striped golpeando una pregunta, ¡que vos nos Striking us – and now you have ternura de un milagro … ¡Qué estafa Tenderness of a miracle … What a swindle has matado! killed it! esas espinas those thorns were que un día nos vendiste gimiendo en Which you sold us one day, groaning on Ahora y en la hora, de atrape y profecía Now and at the hour, of catches and prophecies el calvario! the Calvary! te harán los sordos dedos de un The deaf fingers of a rebel angel will play ángel retobado A solo on two daggers, for each Yo sé que, entre tus voces, secreto I know that among your voices, secret un solo a dos puñales, por cada fechoría, misdeed; y arbitrario, and arbitrary, un solo de Iscariote, con swing de antifonía A Judas Iscariot solo, with a swing of jail te chaira las lengüetas el Diablo, y que The Devil sharpens your tongues; and that canera, ¡hasta que escupas, de a dos, antiphony tus sones your sounds los dos teclados! Until you spit out, in twos, the two keyboards! son gritos afanados del óleo perdulario Are cries robbed from the dissolute oil que un Goya cafonesco pintó contra That a boorish Goya painted against Entonces con un verso de dientes apretados, Then, with a verse of clenched teeth, un sudario, a shroud, un verso en punta de hacha, con sed, A verse like a pickaxe, thirsty, con lágrimas de Judas, de horteras With the tears of Judas, of tarts total, prohibido, total, forbidden, y cabrones. and pimps. te voy a hacer un tajo triunfal, de lado a lado, I’ll cut you triumphantly, from side to side, para que mueras triste, gritando de parado, So that you die sad, screaming, on your feet, Yo he visto a tu patota de sardos I’ve seen your gang of rogue en una como náusea de tangos, lo perdido. In a sort of tango nausea, what we’ve lost. bandoneones bandoneons batir las negras alas y arder Beat their black wings and scorch las botoneras their button panels Text and translation – Part 1

Cuadro 9: Miserere canyengue de los Scene 9: Canyengue Miserere of the Old Voces de ladrones antiguos: Voices of the old thieves: ladrones antiguos en las alcantarillas Gutter Thieves Con un antifaz de charol en la jeta Wearing a lacquered mask on our face daremos maitines con dos palanquetas. We’ll celebrate Matins with a couple of crowbars. Ladron Antiguo Mayor: Chief Old Thief: Hoy, que a los poetas y a los pungas Today, when yet again Voces de madamas y de ladrones: Voices of brothel-keepers and old thieves: y a las locas a white raven Que hoy viene la Niña y estarán en flor For the Girl is coming today and misfortune, wine les saldrá, otra vez, un cuervo blanco Will come out of the mouth of the poets, la yeta y el vino y un Re muy Menor. And a very D minor will be in flower. por la boca: pickpockets and whores; hoy, que por el dos profundo y fijo Today, when through the deep-cut two of the Ladron Antiguo Mayor: Chief Old Thief: de los dados loaded dice Porque estaba escrito con sal en los muros Because it was written in salt on the walls miran, de otro mundo, dos ojitos alunados … Two little sulky eyes stare, from another world … de esta catacumba porteñesca y sola, Of this lonesome Buenos Aires catacomb, y abrimos al grito de siete bandolas And to the shout of seven mandolins, we opened Hoy, que irá a buscar su par por Today, when the tired leg of a neon un séptimo sello lunfardo y maduro. A seventh seal of lunfardo slang and of old age; bares espantosos, street sign la cansada pierna de neón de un luminoso; Tries to find its pair in dingy bars; Porque estaba escrito con tango, este día, Because it was written with tango this day hoy, que la aburrida tangazón Today, when the bored bloody-minded tango y afuera hay olvido y es Martes y And outside there’s oblivion and it’s Tuesday de algun cortado of a macchiato – es Trece, the thirteenth, un arlequín -que vió la punta del piolín- A harlequin – who saw the end of the cord – dará un negro gallo de sangre, tres veces, A black full-blooded cockerel will crow three times ¡se hundió abrazado de un terrón …! Sank in the embrace of a sugar lump …! la pascua canyengue que anuncia a María. The canyengue Easter which announces María.

Voces de madamas: Voices of the brothel-keepers: Voces de madamas: Voices of the brothel-keepers: Con restos de antiguos crespones en llamas With remains of old black crepe in flames Ya viene la Niña buscando el mulato Here comes the Girl, looking for the mulatto pondremos candiles las viejas madamas. We old madames will light the lamps. camino del abismo, montada en su gato. Way to hell, astride her cat.

Voces de ladrones antiguos: Voices of the old thieves: Ladron Antiguo Mayor: Chief Old Thief: Atávicos signos de supersticiones Our old thieves’ fingernails will hang on to Son reas candelas de luz en cuclillas Her eyes are like prison candles of squatting light tendrán nuestras uñas de antiguos ladrones. Primitive signs of superstitions. sus ojos que alumbran, corriendo las losas, Which shine, running along the stones, pequeñas auroras polares de cosas, Small polar auroras of things, Voces de madamas: Voices of the brothel-keepers: muy viejas, que habitan las alcantarillas. Very old, that live in the gutters. Las viejas madamas, abriendo los lechos, We old madames, stripping the beds, tendremos la hoja de té entre los pechos. Will hold the tea leaf between our breasts. Text and translation – Part 1

Le queman las noches detrás de la frente, The nights scorch her behind her forehead Voces de ladrones antiguos: Voices of the old thieves: como húmedas monjas de polvo que zurcen Like wet nuns of dust – reciting morbid milongas – María bufosa, María de Amén, María the gun, Amen María, -rezando morbosas milongas- sus dulces, Who darn the sweet, silent y un punto escarlata tendrás en la sien. And you’ll have a scarlet mark on your temple. calladas y extrañas ojeras calientes. And strange hot rings under her eyes. Ladron Antiguo Mayor: Chief Old Thief: Voces de ladrones antiguos: Voices of the old thieves: Allá va la Sombra de María a su otro infierno … There goes María’s shadow to her other hell … La Niña ha llegado … La Niña cayó: The Girl has arrived … The Girl has fallen; Solo, queda aquí, la vaina rosa de su cuerpo: Here remains, alone, the pink husk of her body; ¡diremos un cántico en Clave de No! We shall pray and sing in the Key of No! tiene todo el mal del mundo, en flor, cabal It holds all the pain of the world, in blossom, y abierto complete and open Ladron Antiguo Mayor (a María): Chief Old Thief (to María): hasta el final; y sin embargo, ¡el corazón To the end; and yet, the heart Desde hoy, para siempre, condeno a From now and forever, I condemn se le ha negado a ser peor! Has refused to be worse! tu sombra: your shadow, que en pena y robada a la mano de Dios, That, in sorrow and stolen from God’s hand, Voces de madamas y de ladrones Voices of brothel keepers and old thieves regrese al asfalto, dramática y sola, It may return to the asphalt, dramatic, alone, (a una vez): (at the same time): y arrastre tus culpas, bien hembra y And drag your guilts, as a female and Ladrón Antiguo Mayor: Chief Old Thief! bien sombra, a shadow, su corazón …¡está muerto! Her heart … is dead! sangrada por siete navajas de Sol. Bled by seven knives of sun. Text by Horacio Ferrer and Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla Translation © 2017 Ann McFall Voces de madamas: Voices of the brothel-keepers: © Editorial Lagos (SADAIC). All rights administered María torcaza, María en el buche, María dove, María, in your gut by Warner Chappell Overseas Holdings Ltd te harán los martirios su sórdido escruche. You’ll undergo the torment of sordid stabbing

Voces de ladrones antiguos: Voices of the old thieves: María de un peso, ¡María que risa! One-peso María, María what a laugh! te trincan los muslos dos manos de tiza … Two chalky hands grasp your thighs.

Voces de madamas: Voices of the brothel keepers: María de un whisky, María en las rocas, Whisky María, María on the rocks, ¡qué gusto -a la vuelta- tendrás en What a taste in your mouth when you come la boca! back round!

‘Yo soy María’ was added after the first run, and in early scores is numbered Cuadro 3b; however in the more recent published score it is numbered 4, and all subsequent scenes are renumbered as they appear here. @delphianrecords Twitter: on Follow us www.facebook.com/delphianrecords Facebook: on us Like www.delphianrecords.co.uk/join Join the Delphian list: mailing fb.com/dolomolinari Dolores Molinari, Para mi mamá mi Para

, acrylic on canvas, 2013, 2013, canvas, on , acrylic

DCD34186 MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES

Astor Piazzolla composer Horacio Ferrer lyricist

Valentina Montoya Martínez Nicholas Mulroy Juanjo Lopez Vidal narrator

Victor Villena bandoneón Mr McFall's Chamber Astor Piazzolla composer Horacio Ferrer lyricist MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES (1921–1992) (1933–2014)

PART 2 (CD2)

1 Cuadro 10: Contramilonga a la funerala por la primera muerte de María [5:02] Funeral Countermilonga for the First Death of María

2 Cuadro 11: Tangata del alba Tangata at Dawn [5:06] Valentina Montoya Martínez Juanjo Lopez Vidal María/The Shadow of María The Duende (narrator) 3 Cuadro 12: Carta a los árboles y a las chimeneas A Letter to the Trees and [3:04] the Chimneys

4 Cuadro 13: Aria de los analistas Aria of the Psychoanalysts [8:02] Nicholas Mulroy Mr McFall’s Chamber The voice of a payador/ 5 Cuadro 14: Romanza del duende poeta y curda Romance of the Drunken [6:14] Poet Duende Sleepy Buenos Aires Sparrow/ Victor Villena First Psychoanalyst/ 6 Cuadro 15: Alegro tangabile [2:58] Musical director/bandoneón A Voice of That Sunday 7 Cuadro 16: Milonga de la anunciación Milonga of the Annunciation [3:22]

8 Cuadro 17: Tangus Dei [9:52]

Total playing time (CD2) [43:45] Mr McFall’s Chamber Speaking Chorus Cyril Garac, Robert McFall violins Lisa Eskuche, Tanja Jacobs, Ann McFall, Brian Schiele viola Rhona McLeod, Doreen Rodgers Recorded on 18-19 June 2016 at The Tom Fleming María de Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Su-a Lee cello Brothel-keepers/spaghetti-kneaders/ Centre, Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools, Edinburgh Ferrer published by Warner/Chappell Music Rick Standley double bass Three Marionettes Drunk on Things Producer: Paul Baxter Session photography: Steven Allan Images: Engineer: Ben Seal Design: John Christ Alison Mitchell flute/piccolo Roberto Rabinovich Sleepy Buenos Aires Sparrow 24-bit digital editing: Paul Baxter Booklet editor: Henry Howard Malcolm MacFarlane guitar Pedro Castillo, Gustavo Pardo, Roberto Rabinovich 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK Cover image: Dolores Molinari, Caos, acrylic on canvas, www.delphianrecords.co.uk Phil Alexander piano Old thieves/ Magi-Bricklayers/The Men who 2013, fb.com/dolomolinari Ian Sandilands, Stuart Semple percussion Returned from Mystery Text and translation – Part 2

Cuadro 10: Contramilonga a la funerala Scene 10: Funeral Countermilonga Por el escote, le salía una neblina negra y From her cleavage rose a mist, black and tied with por la primera muerte de María for the First Death of María atada con la cinta sucia y triste que un raro the sad dirty ribbon that a strange Beatle undid, beatle destrenzaba, a la sordina, del luto on the quiet, from the mysterious mourning of El Duende: The Duende: misterioso de sus twistes. its twists. María de Buenos Aires murió por primera vez; María of Buenos Aires died for the first time; la enteraron – ya era tarde … con sus They told her – it was late – with her Se murió tanto la Niña The girl died so much muecas funerales, funeral grimaces, cuando se puso a morir, When she set herself to dying, un puñal y un cascabel. A knife and a bell. que era una trágica encinta That she was a tragic pregnant woman que, llena de muertecitas, Who, full of little deaths, Y el alba se atoró con sensación de And the sunrise was choked with a feeling ¡no cesaba de parir! Never stopped giving birth! embolia rea, de cuando fué la Niña, of lazy embolism when the Girl left, hauling arriando el gesto, rumbo a una calle con down the gesture, towards a street with ¡Qué cosa! nuestra María How terrible! Our María velones y magnolias ya con las cosas de candles and magnolias already wearing the murió por primera vez … Died for the first time … morir y el frío puestos. cold and her death apparel. La enterraron dos mendigas Two beggars buried her al doblar de las propinas To the toll of the clinking tips Y en la esquina donde aún tejen And in the corner where the bored grandmas en la borra de un exprés. In the dregs of an espresso. las Mamitas con esplín, Still knit bad-temperedly, dos Malenas de relente Two misty versions of the tango ‘Malena’ Pero en su sola catamufa, zurdo But in her lonely gloominess, her clumsy -que habían muerto muchas veces- Which had died many times antojo de un loco mimo sobrehumano, craving for a mad superhuman caress, le enseñaron a morir. Taught her to die. a contrayumba de dos pequeñas against the contrayumba rhythm of two explosiones de los ojos, echó dos small explosions in her eyes, she shed two Misterio allá, misereteando en la maroma de Mystery there, miserere-ing on the tightrope of an lágrimas de rimmel por la tumba … mascara tears on the tomb … un jingle obsceno en soledad de sacramento, obscene jingle in the solitude of the sacrament, fueron cinchando la cureña de palomas los her dove-covered gun carriage was surrounded María de Buenos Aires María of Buenos Aires doce judas de un cristito temulento. by the twelve Judases of a little drunken Christ. lloró por primera vez. Cried for the first time.

Por las fábricas, las pibas In the factories, the girls Cuadro 11: Tangata del alba (instrumental) Scene 11: Tangata at Dawn (instrumental) que hacen la noche a telar, That work the looms on the night shift le pusieron, a María, Laid on María Ya sepultado el cuerpo de María, comienza María’s body already buried, the Shadow of un malvón de poliamida A plastic geranium el largo via crucis de la Sombra de María. María’s long Via Crucis begins. She wanders, y una orquídea de percal. And a calico orchid. Deambula, perdida, por Buenos Aires. lost, through Buenos Aires. Text and translation – Part 2

Cuadro 12: Carta a los árboles y a las Scene 12: A Letter to the Trees and Ya dirán, en el barrio, después: Then they’ll say, in the neighbourhood: chimeneas the Chimneys ¡su recuerdo está grave, otra vez …! ‘Her memory is critically ill again …!’

La sombra de María (dicho): The Shadow of María (spoken): Queridos Árboles y amadas Chimeneas: igual Dear Trees, beloved Chimneys; just like the Buenos Aires, Abril de Toda Mi Tristeza. Buenos Aires, April of All My Sadness, que el humo y que la hoja ya perdidos, oirán mi smoke and the leaf, already lost, you’ll hear my nombre con la sombra en la muerte viva la vez name, with the shadow of living death, the first Queridos Árboles, amadas Chimeneas Dear Trees and beloved Chimneys primera y la vez última que un viento -asma del and the last time a breeze – asthma of the south, que dan la sombra y dan la nube de mi barrio: That give shade and cloud in my district: Sur, gusto de Amén, macho en exilio- ¡entre a taste of Amen, man in exile – wafts in to work the zapar su Tango Aún por Buenos Aires! last seam of its tango in Buenos Aires! Mi dolor ha inventado el dolor My pain has invented the pain de otra cruz en la misma raíz; Of another cross in the same root; Nada más. No hay adiós: Nothing else. There’s no farewell: because que el adiós this farewell Todo pasó como sabrán … Que estoy de luto It all happened, as you’ll know … I’m in mourning nos dolía al principio y no al fín. Hurt us at the beginning and not at the end. por mi propio recuerdo. En tanto les escribo for the memory of myself. As I write to you – con la ternura al hombro y llena de esa sola with tenderness on my shoulder and full of that Ya en un balcón oloroso a mi voz, And on a fragrant balcony, as a sign of mourning, mala palabra que no sé como se dice- sale, one obscenity which I don’t know how to say – póngale dos lutitos de hollín. Dab two little marks of soot on my voice. otra vez, el Sol para apedrearme el miedo the sun rises again to throw stones at my fear con unas migas de su dulce desayuno, como with some crumbs from its sweet breakfast, La Sombra de María. The Shadow of María. aquel que tira tres pelotas por veinte contra like the man who shies three balls for twenty la cara ensangrentada de la infamia. pence at the face of bloodstained infamy. Cuadro 13: Aria de los analistas Scene 13: Aria of the Psychoanalysts

Ya la gente fue a vivir; The people went off to live; Coro de analistas: Chorus of psychoanalysts: ¡cabe el cielo en un jornal!; There is heaven in a wage! ¡Pasen a ver, caballeros! Come and see, gentlemen, loco de azul, a Dios le sobra luz Crazy for blue, God has light to spare ¡cosas jamás nunca vistas Things never seen before; para amasar los pájaros y el pan. To knead the birds and the bread. traeremos los analistas We shall bring the psychoanalysts Si El otra vez me cierra el ventanal, If He, again, should shut me out, a este circo porteñero! … To this Buenos Aires circus …! hartos de mí, los ojos me darán Fed up with me, my eyes will turn tres vueltas y se irán Three times, and will go ¡Pasen a ver!: ¡malabares Come and see; jugglers bizqueando hasta un guiñol Squinting towards a puppet show de un bello remordimiento Full of a beautiful remorse de pólvora y de alcohol. Of gunpowder and alcohol. que hace su trágico intento That makes a tragic attempt con siete libriums impares! … With a seven-odd dose of Valium …! Text and translation – Part 2

Analista Primero: First Psychoanalyst: Analista Primero: First Psychoanalyst: Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, ¡Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, saca tus sueños al sol, Bring out your dreams into the sun, saca los sueños al sol, Bring out your dreams to the sun, que los sueños tienen picos, Because dreams have a sharp edge, que este sueño es de María, This dream is María’s ¡rataplán y rataplón! Rataplan and rataplon. rataplín y rataplón! Rataplin and rataplon.

Coro de analistas: Chorus of psychoanalysts: Coro de analistas: Chorus of psychoanalysts: ¡Pasen a ver!: que la vida Come and see! How life Cámara uno: ¡al recuerdo! Camera one: memory! se enredó en la pena floja, Got tangled up with flabby emotion, Cámara dos: ¡a la conciencia! Camera two: consciousness! ¡y un Yo porque se le antoja And how an I, just because it feels like it, Que pongan un decorado Set up a scene traga angustias encendidas! Puts up with raging anguish! con trapecios de tiniebla, With a trapeze of darkness, que la niña hará su salto The girl will do her jump ¡Aquí está la voltereta Here is the somersault vestida de memoria negra. Dressed in black memory de un rencor que, en zapatillas, Of a grudge that, wearing slippers, Y el Analista Primero And the First Psychoanalyst saca un boom de pesadillas Produces a run of nightmares le pide cuatro piruetas. Commands her to do four pirouettes. por detrás de la careta! From behind its mask! Analista Primero: First Psychoanalyst: Analista Primero: First Psychoanalyst: Cerrá los ojos María, Close your eyes, María, ¡Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, que así en tus ojos cabrán So that there’s room in your mind’s eye saca los sueños al sol, Bring out your dreams into the sun, un patio ñato y un canto For a flat patio and for a song que los sueños tienen filo, Because dreams have a sharp edge, que en ese patio se oirá. That will be heard on that patio. ratapleno y rataplón! Ratapleno and rataplon. ¿Es el llanto de tu madre? Is it your mother’s crying? Coro de analistas: Chorus of psychoanalysts: ¡Pasen a ver!: ¡que asomado Come and see! How leaning out La Sombra de María: The Shadow of María: por el plano sagital, On the sagittal plane, No lo siento. Dicen, de ella, que tenía en la I can’t hear it. They say she had around her da un doble olvido mortal A huge conquered memory cintura una gran sensiblería, como de silla waist the sentimentality of an empty chair and un gran recuerdo amaestrado! Performs a double flip of forgetting! vacía, y que fregaba estrellas sucias para that she scrubbed dirty stairs for others but ¡Pasen a ver!: ¡Adelante! Come and see! Step up! afuera. Pero que nunca lloraba. Eso cuentan that she never cried. So say those who knew ¡que en la pista y poco a poco In the ring, little by little, los que estaban de ella al tanto. her. va hilando una sombra el copo The shadow spins the ball con culpas de antes de antes! … With guilt feelings from long ago! Fue un Viernes, -y no fue santo- It was a Friday – and not Good Friday – y ya me lo acuerdo mal. And I can hardly remember. Text and translation – Part 2

Analista Primero (cantado): First Psychoanalyst (sung): hacer un pequeño aborto cerezo en cada a small cherry abortion on each lip. This is what Abrí los sueños, María, Open up your dreams, María labio. Eso callan los que saben de ese beso the people who know about this kiss, and still que así en tus sueños habrá So that in your dreams there will be y aún lo gozan. enjoy it, do not say. una fragua con dos manos A forge and two hands que en esa fragua hacen pan. Which make bread in that forge. Yo, entonces, era una rosa; I was then a rose; y ya me lo acuerdo mal. And I can hardly remember. (dicho) ¿Son las manos de tu padre? (spoken) Are they your father’s hands? Analista Primero: First Psychoanalyst: La Sombra de María: The Shadow of María: Abrí los sueños, María, Open up your dreams, María, No sé. Pero de él se ha recordado que jugaba I don’t know. But they say of him that he used to que así en tus sueños cabrán So that your dreams will then hold al pase inglés con dos cortafierros cargados play craps with two chisels loaded with hardened un whisky y dos golpes rubios A whisky and two blonde blows con sangre dura, y que perdía cuantas veces blood, and that he lost as many times as he que desde el fondo se oirán That will be heard right from the back. lo quería. Eso juran los que entonces le wanted. That’s what the winners swore, with ganaban con sietes y onces de risa. their laughing sevens and elevens. ¿Es tu corazón que llama? Is it your heart that calls?

Fue un Miércoles de ceniza, It was on an Ash Wednesday La Sombra de María: The Shadow of María y ya me lo acuerdo mal. And I can hardly remember. Dificilmente. Mi corazón cortado en cuatro, Hardly. My heart, cut out in four pieces – they está -dicen- sepeliado en las cuatro troneras say – is buried in the four pockets of a stolen Analista Primero: (cantado) First Psychoanalyst: (sung) de un billar robado. El que ahora llevo puesto pool table. The one on me now I bought from a Cerrá tus ojos María Close your eyes, María se lo compré a una encorazonadora que tenía heart-shop attendant who kept a second-hand que así en dos ojos verás, And in two eyes you will see corazonería de viejo en un paisaje terraja, heart store in a good-for-nothing part of town; un grito y un beso izquierdo A scream and a sinister kiss y vendía corazoncitos tristeros de baraja she sold little saddish hearts of French cards que en este grito se va. That runs away into that scream. francesa y de conejo, de tatuaje de marinero and of rabbits, of tattoos of a lazy sailor, of a con pereza, de rima de canción de cuna y de lullaby rhyme and of an artichoke. She put one ¿Es ése tu primer beso? Is that your first kiss? alcaucil. A mí, me puso uno que es de vista on me which looks good, and which is alright, y no de lástima, recortado del mandil de un cut out of a bandoneon player’s apron; and, La Sombra de María: The Shadow of María: bandoneonista; y con una agujita de estaño with a little tin needle and some thread of brown No sabría. Pero cuentan que en él cabía I wouldn’t know. But they say that it could hold y de hilo de humo castaño, me lo bordó en el smoke, she embroidered it on my stomach. tanta tristeza como la que hubo en el Jesús as much sadness as there was in the Jesus who vientre. Dijo que eso era lo que convenía para She said that was the right thing for someone que no tuvo para leños y se pintó una cruz en could not afford the wood and painted a cross on quien, como yo, soy una sombra María, y ya who, like myself, is a shadow María; as a el lomo. Y que, ese beso, otro día, se hizo his back. And that this kiss, some other day, had por sombra -solo sombra- seré sombra y seré shadow – just a shadow – I’ll be a shadow virgen para siempre. and a virgin forever. Text and translation – Part 2

Lo dijo mientras cosía She said so while she sewed – Aquí, pegado al ñato revés de cada vaso nos Right here, stuck to the flat bottom of each glass ¡y ya me lo acuerdo mal! I can hardly remember. mira el ojo quieto y abierto de locura, que we’re watched by the quiet open eye of madness, algún Discepolín que quiso verle los pasos al that some Discepolín who wanted to see the devil’s Analista Primero: First Psychoanalyst: diablo, cosió con un hilito de amargura. paces, sewed with a fine thread of bitterness. ¡Cubrí tu pecho, María, Cover your breasts, María, con un puñado de sal, With a fistful of salt, Voces de Tres Marionetas Borrachas de Cosas: Voices of the Three Marionettes Drunk on Things: que adentro te mira un cero, Because inside a zero is looking at you Desde que esta copa que el Duende, From this glass from which the Duende, y el cero te va a llorar! And the zero will cry for you! por triste, se está fajando, Is gloomily gulping, we, tres Marionetas Borrachas Three Marionettes Drunk on Things, La Sombra de María: The Shadow of María: de Cosas, lo campaneamos. Are watching him. Del numeroso gris de anteayer Of the endless greys of the past ya no me acuerdo más que de aquel I can only remember El Duende: The Duende: misterio cruel que me gritó: That one cruel mystery that screamed at me: Aquí, donde mañana sabe a antaño, Here, where tomorrow tastes of the past, looking ¡Nacé! ‘Be born!’ buscando a Dios yo ví, de escalofrío, que for God, I saw, in the space of a shiver, that he y cuando entre a vivir, And when I made my entrance and started to live estaba en lo que quiero y en lo que extraño, was in what I love and in that which I miss, cut, at se sonrió … It smiled … cortado a esa sazón, como el tamaño del that time, as the size of the grain gives the length Y al fin al verme así, And then finally, when it saw me like this, grano da el tamaño del estío. of the summer. tan última y tan yo, So with-it and so myself, mordiéndose, gritó: It bit itself and shrieked: Aquí, en cada botella, cabe un río; y al fondo Here in each bottle there’s room for a river; ¡Morí! … ‘Drop dead!’ … de ese río hay otro estaño; y, en curda, en ese and at the bottom of this river there’s another bar; estaño, un verso mío, y, en él, la plata triste and drunk, in this bar, one of my poems, and in it, de otro río que me hizo Duende, me hizo … the sad silver of another river that made me a Cuadro 14: Romanza del duende poeta y Scene 14: Romance of the Drunken Poet ¡hace mil años! Duende, made me … a thousand years ago! curda Duende Voces de Tres Marionetas Borrachas de Cosas: Voices of the Three Marionettes Drunk on Things: El Duende: The Duende: Al Duende -que en la operita The Duende – who in the operita Aquí, en este mágico bar talismanero ¡se sabe Here, in this magical, lucky bar, almost all is venía el cuento contando- Came along to tell the tale – casi todo! … lo cuentan, de escolaso las sotas known! … It’s told in a gambling game by the se le ha perdido una sombra Has lost a shadow y los reyes, ventrílocuos cabreros de cosas jacks and kings, gangster ventriloquists of things y, en curda, la va llamando. And, in his drunkenness, keeps calling it. que el Destino fermenta entre los mazos. that Fate brews up between the card decks. Text and translation – Part 2

El Duende: The Duende: Voces de Tres Marionetas Borrachas de Cosas: Voices of the Three Marionettes Drunk on Things: De mí, jugado a vos, te mando este retazo de From me, betting on you, I send you this fragment Iremos todos, Don Duende, We will all go, Master Duende, tango con ojeras, que allá en tu pena entero, of tango, with bags under its eyes, that in your full los puntos de este curdato The punters of this drinking club, removerá en la amarga ceniza de tus pasos la pain will call up again the loving anger of a friendly a llevarle a la Pequeña To take the wee Girl bronca enamorada de un canto compañero. song in the bitter ashes of your footsteps. de parte suya, un milagro. A miracle on your behalf.

De mí, y a donde me oigas, irán hasta tu cero, From me, and wherever you hear me, two El Duende: The Duende: dos lucas de rubionas, yironas y Melatos, thousand blondes, street walkers and pimps will Y así que vos renazcas, sabras qué trampa And as soon as you’re reborn, you’ll know what a echar sobre tu sombra un fato de luceros. walk to your nothingness to cast a job lot of stars tienen la yerba en su barrica, y el cielo del tricks there are in the maté in its gourd and the (¡Los huesos de Olivari conocen de upon your shadow. (Olivari’s bones know agujero que mira del zapato; la lluvia que no sky from the hole which gazes up from a shoe, este fato!). all about this business!) viene y un sorbo de esa lluvia, y el tiempo en the rain that doesn’t arrive and a sip of that rain, su tiempero … and time in its time‑pot … Voces de Tres Marionetas Borrachas de Cosas: Voices of the Three Marionettes Drunk on Things: ¡Pobre Duende! Anda por esa Poor Duende! He’s looking for that ¡Y así María! ¡Así, María! ¡Asi! por cada And so, María! So, María! So! For every sombrita, desesperado: Little shadow, desperate, quiero y las nueve lunas locas y en celo de ‘I love’ nine crazy moons on heat from your y nos pide a los compinches And asks us, his friends, un infarto de luz, te harán -en torno- los stroke of light will make you the amorous que a ella llevemos su llanto. To take his grieving to her. guiños sensibleros de un baile amanecido winks of an all-night-long dance of laughter de risas y de partos … and childbirth … El Duende: The Duende: De mí, y en donde estés, con una fuerza de From me, and wherever you are, with a strength Voces de Tres Marionetas Borrachas de Cosas: Voices of the Three Marionettes Drunk on Things: locos, como un himno estrafalario, tan hondo born of madness and like an eccentric hymn Ya vamos, Sombra María, Here we come, Shadow María, sonará el concierto mersa que un viejo ciego, which will resonate deeply, an old blind man will con el Diciembre y los cantos With December and the songs a vos, te hará en la terza morena de su reo play a low-life concert for you on the third string que está amasándote el Duende That the Duende is kneading for you estradivario. of his dodgy Stradivarius. con el polen de este estaño. With the pollen of this bar.

De mí, y en donde estés, pondré un plenario From me, and wherever you are, I’ll set up a El Duende: The Duende: de dulces duendecitos que retuerza la niebla meeting of sweet little Duendes who can twist Y así, por un silencio de corchea vendrá -por And thus, in a quaver’s silence your day will - de tu piel; y un tabernario rumor de nazarenos the haze of your skin; and a drunken buzz of jailed fin- tu día: un alazano Domingo, que te hará finally - come. A chestnut Sunday will make for carcelarios dirá tu Anunciación penitents will recite your Annunciation con las más feas hojitas de un laurel de olor, you, with the ugliest leaves of a perfumed laurel, en parla inversa. in back slang. la rea y angélica belleza de sus ramos. the rambling, angelic beauty of its branches. Text and translation – Part 2

Tu día, nacerá del meridiano cachuzo del Your day will be born from a worn-out meridian Flaco y en banda Skinny and lost – umbral en donde hornea su misa, algún poeta of the threshold where a poet bakes his mass -¡tan cadenero!- Dragging his chains – a contramano. Así sea, querida, de cristiano. back to front. So be it, my dear, in good faith. me anda un Jesús chapalenado, de cuarta, A tawdry Jesus is going along splashing; Así, de tuyo y nuestro … ¡Que así sea! So be it, yours and ours … So be it! en la voz, in his voice un canyenguito sobón There’s a little lazy canyengue tango con un compás With a beat Cuadro 15: Allegro tangabile (instrumental ) Scene 15: Allegro tangabile (instrumental) de punto cruz; Of cross stitch; y un dulce barro torcaz And a sweet clay mud Las Tres Marionetas Borrachas de Cosas The Three Marionettes Drunk on Things, de Cruz del Sur Of the Southern Cross salen junto con sus compinches del mágico along with their friends, leave the magical bar que hoy me ha puesto a temblar. That today has got me trembling. bar para llevarle de parte del Duende a la and take to the Shadow of María, on behalf of Sombra de María el milagro de la fecundidad. the Duende, the miracle of fertility. A symphony Y un angelito And a terracotta Una sinfonía de marionetas, angelitos de of marionettes, clay angels, Chaplins, street de terracota, Angel, barro cocido, chaplines, murguistas, musicians and Discépolíns run amok in the tuerto del grito en la rota viudez Injured in the cry of the worn-out widowhood discépolínes gana enloquecida la calle de streets of Buenos Aires, looking for the seed de un pretil, of a railing, Buenos Aires, buscando el germen de un hijo of a child for the Shadow of María. mascando un salmo en sanata, Mumbling an unintelligible psalm, para la Sombra de María. con un jazmín tied a little sun of milk me ató un solcito de leche sobre el sutién, On my bra along with a jasmine flower, Cuadro 16: Milonga de la anunciación Scene 16: Milonga of the Annunciation ¡que dos espasmos de luz So that I have two spasms of light tengo atrás de la piel! Beneath my skin! La Sombra de María: The Shadow of María: Tres marionetas Three marionettes – ¡Dale María! Come on, María! -chuecas y locas- Bow-legged and mad – Si nueve llantos If nine sobs que una violeta en la boca me hincaron ayer, Who shoved a violet into my mouth yesterday son todo el pardo misterio que habia que ver, Are all the dark mystery there was to see, con un cuchillo en los dientes, por el revés With a knife in their teeth, go sewing ¡qué loco intento de espiga que vas a hacer!, What a mad attempt at fruition you will make! de mis caderas tordillas, zurciendo van A big patch of fennel and sisal flowers ¡qué dura rama celeste te va a crujir! What a hard bluish branch will rustle for you! un gran remiendo en flor de hinojo y de sisal Along the back of my grey hips ¡Dale que está al venir! Come on, it’s about to come! ¡Ay! … Ow! … ¡Dale que duele bien! Come on, it really hurts in the right way! ¡Ay! … Ow! … Text and translation – Part 2

Tengo atorada I’ve got so much El Duende: The Duende: tanta ternura Frustrated tenderness Hoy es Domingo, laurel con fiaca. Today is Sunday; Laurel with laziness. Sunday- ¡que de una sola ternura a Dios That with only one bit of tenderness I can give Domingamente rueda un bostezo. Y, en el like, a yawn rolls by. And in the yawn, the girls give puedo parir! birth to God! bostezo, dan las muchachas la buena nueva the good news of the good irrevocable step which ¡Y si es que nadie ya quiere de mí nacer, And if nobody wants me to give birth to them, del buen mal paso que arde en la hilacha burns in the taut and extravagant thread of their en el rebozo robado de Wrapped in the stolen cape of some pródiga y tensa de sus bluyines: Laurel caliente. blue jeans; hot laurel. algun Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin, entre mis brazos daré Between my arms I shall Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: de mamar a un botín! Breast-feed a boot! Hoy es Domingo; y un coro Today is Sunday, and a choir de mil domingos muchachos Of a thousand boy Sundays Cuadro 17: Tangus Dei Scene 17: Tangus Dei desde el orsai dice un viejo From the offside tells an old story romance en cuatro dos cuatro. In four-two-four formation. Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: Voces de las amasadoras de tallarines: Voices of the spaghetti-kneaders: Hoy es Domingo, y al día Today is Sunday, and the day los sacan del Domingario Is taken out of its Sunday corner A las amasadoras de tallarines algo Something strange is happening to us, una novia sin Domingo By a bride without a Sunday nos pasa: the spaghetti-kneaders; y el penúltimo borracho. And by the last drunkard but one. ¿Por qué es que se nos retiemblan las manos Why are our tough hands trembling inside duras entre la masa? the dough? El Duende: The Duende: Voces de Tres Albañiles Magos: Voices of the Three Magi-Bricklayers: Hoy es Domingo: Laurel con leche. Desde el Today is Sunday; Laurel with milk. From the badajo de su cuchara da un capuchino tres clapper of its teaspoon, a cappuccino rings three ¿Qué gusto le han mezclado los copetines, que What have they put in the drinks that campanadas: tras los misales, pican motetes peals behind the missals, the worn-out but tienen una patota de estrellitas, en donde There’s a gang of little stars where the olives las derrotadas y alegres nalgas de las exultant midwives’ bottoms grind motets. estaban las aceitunas? used to be? matronas: Laurel con ajo. Laurel with garlic. Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: Hoy es Domingo y atorran Today is Sunday, and even Hoy es Domingo, y las brujas Today is Sunday, and the witches hasta los séptimos tangos; The seventh tangos sleep; se espiran, porque asomados Go away, because peeping será, sin embargo el día It will, however, be the day del tuco les tiran soles Out of the tuco sauce del más antiguo trabajo. For the oldest profession. los chicos y los payasos. Children and clowns throw suns at them. Text and translation – Part 2

El Duende: The Duende: Voces de Tres Albañiles Magos: Voices of the Three Magi-Bricklayers: Hoy es Domingo: Laurel y azares. ¿Qué Today is Sunday; Laurel and chance. What Y la marca de sus uñas And the scratch of her nails Buenos Aires le echó los naipes a este ‘buenos aires’ dealt the cards to this Sunday so se ve en el cemento armado. Is seen in the reinforced concrete. Domingo que así, en la altura pampero arriba, that up high, above the Pampas winds, three little tres profetitas locos laburan juntando ramos mad prophets toil gathering bunches of a new El Duende: The Duende: de un nuevo aroma: Laurel del aire? aroma; Laurel and air? Cuánta cosa, uno por uno, le retoña los So many things, one by one, burgeon from ovarios fecundos de mil dolores en her ovaries, fertile with a thousand pains, Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: seducción de sopapo. ¡Si parece que seduced with slaps. It seems that even her Hoy es Domingo y me han dicho Today is Sunday; and it is said tuviera hasta el nombre embarazado! name is pregnant! What trembling shakes que hasta el muñeco de trapo That even the rag doll ¡Que retemblor le sacude la entraña, her insides, as if by delivering seventy que cuelga en los colectivos That hangs in the buses como si echando setenta reencarnaciones reincarnations of an unborn little Jesus, she viene a lo alto mirando. Is gazing upwards. de un jesusito nonato, se arrancara de los were drawing seventy nails out of the bones huesos del vientre, setenta clavos! of her womb! El Duende: The Duende: Hoy es Domingo: Laurel servido. Qué extraña Today is Sunday; laurel served up. What (La sombra de María, comienza a cantar un (The shadow of María starts singing a Christmas siembra dió este Domingo, que allá en lo alto strange seed this Sunday strewed, so that high villancico a los lejos.) carol from far away) de un piso treinta, sola en la sola cal de un up there on the thirtieth floor, alone amongst andamio, reparturienta de nueve asombros, the whitewash of a scaffolding, rebirth of nine El Duende The Duende hierve una sombra: ¡Laurel con hembra! surprises, a shadow seethes: Laurel with woman! Dos angelotes parteros la trincan de bruces, Two midwife angels hold her face down as they cuando le dan de forceps use as forceps Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: los fierros del pesebre hormigonado. The reinforcing rods of the concrete crib. Hoy es Domingo; y a punta Today is Sunday; and using de diente, como peleando Her teeth, as if fighting, ¡Cómo alumbra para adentro! ¡Qué luz le What a light it sheds inside! What a sharp light allá esa sombra por dentro This shadow is washing chaira en el tallo! Qué clara lastimadura - is shed on her stalk! What a clear wound, half sus lutos se esta lavando. The inside of her mourning. cruza de muerte y de orgasmo - le enciende way between orgasm and death – lights up on por las caderas como un canyengue de astros. her hips like a canyengue of stars. Come on, Voces de las amasadoras de tallarines: Voices of the spaghetti-kneaders: ¡Fuerza María!: que nace y nace, naciendo María! It’s being born, and born, and it’s being Se le abisma la cintura In the abyss of her waist tanto, que te pare hasta el olvido, y te empuja born so much that it takes you to oblivion and la cincha de un nudo zaino. The girdle of a dark knot. entre las manos y en la raíz y en la rabia y te it pushes you into its hands and in its root and Text and translation – Part 2 renace a pedazos, por las puntas de otras in its rage, makes you be born again in bits, Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: trenzas, por las grietas de los labios, por el in the tips of other plaits, in the cracks of those La Niña tuvo otra niña The girl had another girl gesto, ¡y por las ganas de nacerte hasta lips, in the gesture and in the desire to give que es ella misma y no es tanto. Who is her and yet not so. el cansancio! birth to the point of exhaustion! Quieren final y principio They want, finally and initially, ser gotas del mismo llanto. To be tears of the same sob. ¡Cuánta Navidad tenías How much Christmas you had atragantada en los años! Choking you up for years! Voces de los espectadores: Voices of the spectators: qué zafra brava, María, What a splendid harvest, María, ¡Por Dios!: Los espectadores también Good God! The spectators also want zafra de partos, tu parto … Harvest of childbirth, your childbirth … queremos saber, to know si la letra de este tango ya ha sido o esta If the words of this tango have been or are Voces de las amasadoras de tallarines: Voices of the spaghetti-kneaders: por ser. about to be. A quién recién ha nacido nada le sobra The newly born has nothing to spare y no tiene cuna. And has no crib. Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: En los ojos de la niña In the eyes of the girl Voces de Tres Albañiles Magos: Voices of the Three Magi-Bricklayers: el tiempo está bien robado: Time’s been stolen; Su padre que es un carpintero de obra Her father, who is a carpenter, por ayer y por mañana Yesterday and tomorrow ha de hacerle una. Will make a crib for the child. María la han bautizado. She has been christened María.

Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: El Duende: The Duende: Desde lo alto del Domingo From the summit of Sunday Pero aquellos hombres, los rudos maestros But those men, the rough masters of my los Tres Albañiles Magos, The Three Magi-Bricklayers de mi tristería, que saben del mudo sadness, who know about the quiet en la arena de esa cuna Have left a pink wink arremango que cabe a ese nombre, cuando confidence which that name evokes, when un guiño rosa han dejado. On the sand of the crib. hay pena llena sobre el aire overo de las full grief falls upon the thick fug of the bars - curderias, lo nombran, apenas, ladrando give it a name, uncertainly, calling out in its Voces de Tres Albañiles Magos: Voices of the Three Magi-Bricklayers: a su recuerdo la sombra de los tangos que memory the shadow of old tangos which are ¿Por qué es que los angelitos todos llorando Why is it that the little angels, all of them crying, ya fueron y no existen todavía. both no more and still to come. a encurdarse han ido? Have gone off to get drunk? Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: Voces de las amasadoras de talarines: Voices of the spaghetti-kneaders: Nuestra María Our María ¡Porque ese niño no es niño, Jesus! ¡Que es Because that child is not a boy, Jesus! It’s a de Buenos Aires … Of Buenos Aires … niña: niña ha nacido! Girl! A girl has been born! Text and translation – Part 2

El Duende: The Duende: De olvido eres Forgotten art thou entre todas las mujeres … Amongst all women …

Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: Nuestra María Our María de Buenos Aires … Of Buenos Aires …

El Duende: The Duende: Presagio eres Portent art thou entre todas las mujeres … Amongst all women …

Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: Nuestra María … Our María …

El Duende: The Duende: De olvido eres Forgotten art thou entre todas las mujeres … Amongst all women …

Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: Nuestra María … Our María …

El Duende: The Duende: © Juan Jose Lopez Presagio eres Portent art thou entre todas las mujeres … Amongst all women …

Una Voz de Ese Domingo: A Voice of That Sunday: María … María …

Text by Horacio Ferrer and Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla Translation © 2017 Ann McFall © Editorial Lagos (SADAIC). All rights administered by Warner Chappell Overseas Holdings Ltd Biographies

Known for its innovative approach to Lyall, Phil Bancroft, Fraser Fifield, Tim Garland Valentina Montoya Martínez accomplished Scottish guitarist and sound programming and stylistic plurality, and many more. Two McFall’s commissions, was born in Chile, the engineer. Together they formed their folk band Mr McFall’s Chamber was formed in 1996 Martin Suckling’s What shall I give? and daughter of a former political ‘Valentina and Voces Del Sur’ and made their as a response to the narrowing demographic Martin Kershaw’s Closing In, were shortlisted prisoner and a political debut at the old Bongo Club in Edinburgh, for classical music in Scotland at that time. as finalists for the 2011 BASCA British refugee. Her exiled family where a chance encounter with the Scottish Initially an ad hoc string quartet, gradually Composer Awards. arrived in Britain in 1977. She ensemble Mr McFall’s Chamber led to the adding a bass player and pianist as well as grew up surrounded by the beginning of an ongoing and fruitful other, occasional members, the group played The group has collaborated with artists and folk music of her native land – collaboration singing tango. at first to nightclub audiences and offered animators in multimedia projects, and has a central part of her life in Britain and often the a mixture of types of music, some popular, established many educational projects around focal point of a small community of exiles. She To date, Valentina and Voces Del Sur’s some way-out. Subsequently it took its Scotland, including North Ayrshire’s ‘Tango began to accompany her own singing on guitar performances have included numerous venues bohemian approach and some, at least, Fest’, launched in December 2012, in which when she was twelve, and soon began and festivals in the UK, with concerts in of its bohemian audience back into the concert more than three hundred young string pupils performing at Chilean cultural events. She also Portugal, Chile and Mexico. The band have also hall, creating music events which combined performed a programme of traditional tango developed a love of Argentine tango, from the supported Buena Vista Social Club’s Eliades contemporary classical pieces with jazz, numbers with the group. In 2014 Mr McFall’s many recordings her mother had brought over Ochoa, as well as legendary Chilean folk group folk, progressive rock, cabaret and tango, Chamber toured and recorded five songs by from Chile. Her vocal training, she says, ‘was Quilapayún during their visits to Scotland. all presented in a style which places the classical singer-songwriter Errollyn Wallen, the struggle for survival in a foreign land, the Valentina and David have recently released emphasis on informality and enjoyment. and a new set of songs by Errollyn was fight against cultural invisibility and the love of their newest album, Daughter of Exile, the first commissioned for October 2015 as part of an my people and our musical traditions’. of two recordings which reflect on Valentina’s Mr McFall’s Chamber has collaborated with a ambitious curated programme of music from early memories of exile. At the heart of this number of singer-songwriters, including Scotland and the Caribbean, with support from She graduated in Comparative American project is a poetic dialogue between singer Michael Marra and Valentina Montoya a prestigious PRS for Music Foundation award. Studies from Warwick University in 1994. She Valentina and the child that she was when her Martínez (both of whom have recorded In December 2014, Mr McFall’s Chamber was then spent two years teaching English and family left Chile to escape Pinochet’s military CDs for Delphian with the group). It is also named in The List’s ‘Hot 100’ countdown of Drama at the University of Puebla in Mexico, as dictatorship. What does the little girl say to her dedicated to commissioning new work from Scotland’s top hundred cultural icons. well as singing in local venues and cafes. On future self? She whispers her dreams and both well-known and unknown composers, her return to the UK she undertook a master’s favourite things to be woven into song. and has premiered and toured pieces by James degree on the work of Víctor Jara, one of her ‘Cántame una canción que me ayude en el MacMillan, Gavin Bryars, Eddie McGuire, main inspirations, and then set off for camino!’ (‘Sing me a song which helps me Kenneth Dempster, Cecilia McDowall, Chick Edinburgh, where she met David Russell, an along the way!’) says the child. The adult sings. Biographies

Born in Liverpool, Nicholas Gramophone Award-winning Messiah with directors, and most importantly for him, He participated in the televised concert Mulroy studied at Clare the Dunedin Consort, and releases with some of the best singers of tango’s Golden 1000 Years of Music in 60 Minutes on French- College, Cambridge and the Exaudi, The King’s Consort and I Fagiolini. Age, including Alberto Podesta, Paya Dias, German ARTE TV with Frank Braley, Henri Royal Academy of Music. He He recently featured on two versions of the Roberto Goyeneche, Roberto Rufino, Demarquette and Olivier Charlier. He has taken regularly appears with leading St John Passion singing the arias for Stephen Carlos Acuña, Jorge Valdez and many others, the part of musical director for Piazzolla’s ensembles throughout Layton and Polyphony and Evangelist and not least Horacio Ferrer. These experiences María de Buenos Aires three times, in 2007, Europe, including the arias for John Butt and the Dunedin Consort. have given him a unique perspective on the 2013 and 2016 in performances at the National Monteverdi Choir with Sir He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of work of the legends and long-established Theatre of Lisbon, and the Queen’s Hall in John Eliot Gardiner, Les Musiciens du Louvre Music and a Musician in Residence of Girton interpreters of the genre. Edinburgh. Since 2013 he has been Official with Marc Minkowski, Les concerts d’Astrée College, Cambridge. Bandoneón Player for Ute Lemper on her with Emmanuelle Haïm, the Gabrieli Consort After a long break, he recorded his comeback world tour. with Paul McCreesh, as well as in recent The singer and producer album Tango de Bute in Buenos Aires in 2012, concerts with the Orchestra of the Age of Juanjo Lopez Vidal was born featuring music director Carlos Buono on Enlightenment, Koelner Akademie, Dunedin in Buenos Aires, Argentina. bandoneón, Juan Pugliano on piano and Daniel Consort, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal At twelve, he taught himself Cucci on double bass. Scottish National Orchestra, English Chamber to play guitar and started Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Copenhagen singing with his older brother. Born in Argentina in 1979, Philharmonic, Wrocław Philharmonic and at In 1979, their duo was signed Victor Villena has been the BBC Proms and the Spitalfields Festival. by RCA Victor, where they hailed by the international Other conductors he has worked with include worked with Piazzolla’s guitarist Horacio press as one of the world’s Laurence Cummings, Trevor Pinnock, Sir Colin Malvicino and under the artistic direction leading bandoneón players. Davis and Nicholas Kraemer. On stage he has of Grammy Award winner Julian Navarro. The New York Times said ‘ worked with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Mr Villena’s bandoneon on Tour, Opéra Comique Paris, Théâtre In 1989, Juanjo toured Spain, later settling in [expresses] extremes Capitole de Toulouse and at the Opéra de Lille. Granada where he performed and worked as of earthiness and ethereality, an emotional an engineer/producer and consultant for all the universe unto itself,’ calling him ‘A master Recordings for Delphian include the Stravinsky international music festivals in the city, before of the instrument’. In 2013 he released his Cantata with the Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, relocating to the United Kingdom. He was first and to date most important solo recording Edinburgh and the Scottish Chamber co-founder and board member of the Music Bandoneón Ecléctico, which was selected Biography photo credits: Orchestra (DCD34164) and music by Gavin Producers Guild (UK). During his career as a to be part of Música Argentina’s El Arte de Valentina Montoya Martínez, © Sofia Sequeiros Nicholas Mulroy, © Raphaelle Photography Bryars with Mr McFall’s Chamber producer and engineer, Juanjo has worked Bandoneón series, and nominated among Juanjo Lopez Vidal, © Robert Slade (DCD34058). Other recordings include a with some of the most influential tango the best Argentine recordings of 2014. Victor Villena, © Marc Marnie Mr McFall’s Chamber on Delphian

La Pasionaria The Okavango Macbeth Valentina Montoya Martínez, Mr McFall’s Chamber Edinburgh Studio Opera & Mr McFall’s Chamber / Michael Bawtree DCD34120 DCD34096 (2 discs) Valentina Montoya Martínez’s songs of life as a Chilean exile are The Macbeth story as played out in a troupe of baboons? This fanciful complemented by the music of the tango nuevo. ‘La Pasionaria’ was the idea inspired writer Alexander McCall Smith and composer Tom nickname of Dolores Ibárruri, a Basque Communist leader during the Cunningham with the idea for this unique chamber opera, set in the Spanish Civil War. Likewise both engaged and passionate, the songs Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. It centres on the efforts of an brought together here – including Valentina’s deeply personal odes to ambitious female baboon, Lady Macbeth, to encourage her husband to her late mother and to the political activist Sola Sierra – pay tribute to the murder the dominant baboon, Duncan. The opera was premiered in private and public lives of women across Spain and Latin America. Botswana, in The No 1 Ladies’ Opera House which McCall Smith helped found as a venue for the many talented local singers there, before ‘hugely engaging ... A glorious, loveable disc’ transferring to this, the first of two Scottish productions to date. — The Arts Desk, August 2013 ’Small-scale perfection’— The Arts Desk, January 2012

Michael Marra: live on tour 2010 Solitudes: Baltic Reflections Michael Marra, Mr McFall’s Chamber Mr McFall’s Chamber DCD34092 DCD34156 Robert McFall writes: When we toured with Michael in 2010 we had, No one knows quite when tango was established in Finland, but the of course, no idea that he would only be with us for a further two years. style has a long history there – still little known to outsiders – and Looking back on it I’m hugely relieved that we made these recordings combines rhythmic interest and yearning melody with a distinctively when we could, that we helped capture what a Michael Marra Nordic melancholy. In this ingeniously curated programme, two Finnish performance was like, down to his impeccably presented and hilarious tangos from the 1950s and a tango-based work by Finnish classical introductions. For some time before the collaboration some of composer Aulis Sallinen are woven into a bold tapestry of music from us had been faithful fans of his, and we feel blessed to have had the the Eastern Baltic seaboard. Longing, sadness, and a heightened sense opportunity to be, for an all too brief few weeks, his backing band. of nature infuse all of these works, which also reveal intriguing stylistic connections. These original compositions are complemented by Robert ‘Aficionados will know Marra’s utterly idiosyncratic material ... but the McFall’s own sensitive arrangements for a core McFall’s line-up of five sympathetic McFall’s settings bring a new, almost cinematic element, strings and piano, and the programme culminates in a truly unique managing to complement the frequent quirkiness of these songs while version of Sibelius’s famous Finlandia Hymn. emphasising the compassion which glows amid the surrealism’ — The Scotsman, November 2010 ‘Full marks for originality of concept and for execution’ — Gramophone, September 2015 @delphianrecords Twitter: on Follow us www.facebook.com/delphianrecords Facebook: on us Like www.delphianrecords.co.uk/join Join the Delphian list: mailing fb.com/dolomolinari Dolores Molinari, Para mi mamá mi Para

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DCD34186