There comes a time even during the best 'temporadas' in Buenos Aires, when one falls ill...which puts a temporary stop to dancing tango. And so, it happened to me as well - being out of commission until better.
However one meets one's milonga obligations, especially in this case, when Sueno Porteno, one of the most popular milongas, has inaugurated not only it's first Wednesday milonga at Club Gricel (tango venue de rigueur) but has done so on re-finished floors (it sorely needed some expert care) and surrounded by freshly painted daring red walls. Entonces - I camouflaged my misery enough to attend for a couple of hours and baptize the boards with a few tango tandas, before feeling like that 'animalito' in above picture.
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| Freshly levelled and polished...we may get a few more years out of these well trodden floors.... |
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| The read walls keep the eye from wandering to the ceiling...one would not want to see too clearly up there...Gricel feels welcoming and festive |
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Julia, with an additional nick name of 'Pugliese' welcomes her faithful milonga followers, who fill the place to overflowing during every one of her milongas, with her signature words:
Gracias, Gracias, Gracias.... |
Of course, by that time I felt a bit of a wreck and took a taxi home. Taxis have just increased their fares by 20%...and yes, they did - my fare was 20% higher to the click of the meter.
Still under the weather, I managed my tango and milonga private lessons this week, after fortifying myself with sufficient over-the-counter 'poison' to keep from falling off my low-slung 'high heels'.
Having purchased a ticket to one of the Tschaikovsky Concerts at stunning Teatro Colon, I gathered all my energy and attended a rousing performance of Capriccio Italiano and Symphony Nr 4 of the Russian Composer. Every time I have the pleasure of listening to the Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, I am immensely impressed by not only the number of players (the various sections are all well staffed) but by their artistic excellence - must be the latin blood.... This time, Enrique Arturo Diemecke conducted...a man with a German name, Mexican citizenship, conductor of major orchestras in USA and Argentina, international guest conductor, graduate of Universidad Catolica of Washington DC.
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| 1908 - the birth year of Teatro Colon, represents the sumptuousness of La Belle Epoque, imported directly from Paris. The Golden Era of Buenos Aires... there is still an entire city block in the vicinity of Calle Esmeralda in Recoleta, which is an exact copy of an identical one located in Paris....constructed in the early 20th century by Argentinians who had the power, money and resources to visit and return from Paris and just order their minions to 'construct me one of those' just like they had liked in Paris. Souvenir hunting of the super rich. |
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| No matter how 'acustically perfect' modern venues are being constructed, they can never re-awaking the feeling of grandeur, elegance, and style of the Golden Age of opera, or better, of Opera Houses. Functional design has it's own appeal, and it's own artistic architectural merits, but romantic dreams are created in places like Teatro Colon. South America has a few of these 'relics'. If anyone ever visited the Opera House of Manaus, a city in the centre of the Amazon Jungle, knows what I am talking about....there is another improbable testimony of 'operatic excess' which has become a national icon. |
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| Lalique...I suppose... |
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| Nude Gods and Godesses take their ease near the ceiling of Teatro Colon. |
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| Tragedy and Comedy...two faces of life, two symbols of theatre....La Boca and its conventillos of 1908 were surely tragic (as represented by Quinquelas paintings and much of tango poetry)....life around the Teatro Colon during that era, may have been all but tragic... |
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| Enrique Arturo Diemecke taking a bow with Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires |
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The main seating is below this photo, as well as the 'loges', the private balconies for patrons who can afford their little private enclave.
Up here, we have balconies, cazuelas, tertulias, and el paraiso. For a patron, things get cheaper, the higher up in the theatre one sits...until you reach the very top of el teatro, where the audience can enjoy the performance - standing up. No seating in paradise.
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A week of 'repose' in a way, recuperating. Lots of time to follow the various scandals that punish Argentina....
As a final thought, the gentleman who was in charge of refurbishing the wooden boards of Gricel (site of Sueno Porteno milonga) just survived an early morning street attack by four armed thugs, who beat him over the head and robbed him of everything 'valuable' on his person at the collective point of their guns - cell phones are prime booty. Luckily they did not shoot him, apparently he 'calmed them down', whatever that means, and he is alive to tell the tale. Not exactly the best finish to a night out milongeando...
Unfortunately those incidents are a common occurrence here in Buenos Aires, and they hardly ever even rise eyebrows anymore. The country seems to be almost desensitized - 3800 homicides a year - most of them unsolved. With that statistic as a back drop, a few armed robberies without fatalities don't even make the news.
