Florentine's tango opera 'Maria de Buenos Aires' a dark, immersive experience

A couple dancing the tango, a person playing the bandoneon and a surreal tale delivered in sung and spoken Spanish are not a recipe for traditional opera, but Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera is not shooting for traditional with its season's last presentation.

The company has transformed Turner Hall Ballroom into urban Argentina for its weekend run of Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer’s tango opera, “Maria de Buenos Aires” (1968).

Argentine composer and bandoneon player Piazzolla is remembered for incorporating jazz and classical elements into traditional tangos, creating the “nuevo tango,” as much at home serving as dance accompaniment as it is on the concert stage.

The opera tells a dark story of a young woman who is seduced by the tango and dragged into a world of shady characters and tragic events that lead to her death. She returns in ghostly form as the Shadow of Maria.

Created specifically for the Turner Hall Ballroom by Atlanta Opera artistic director Tomer Zvulun and Brian August, the production’s stage director, Florentine's "Maria" is an engrossingly immersive affair.

Even Thursday’s dress rehearsal found audience members at café tables in the center of the ballroom, with traditional seating along one side of the space, and three “stage” areas at the front, back, and one side of the ballroom. Singers, dancers, the show’s narrator, and ensemble members moved throughout the ballroom, surrounding and weaving through the audience.

The ballroom’s distinctly faded grandeur served as the perfect set for the story of a culture and a woman’s ruin.

Mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian brought a sultry voice and engrossing musical interpretations to the roles of Maria and the Shadow of Maria, interacting wonderfully with baritone Gustavo Feulien whose rich, dark, focused sound and searing presence creating a riveting El Payador.

As narrator El Duende, Blas Canedo González gave a gripping delivery of the opera’s surrealist poetry. Speaking both directly to individuals and to the audience at large, he deepened the immersive impact. Tango dancers Gustavo Russo and Florencia Lucano provided steamy, extremely physical dancing that anchored the production’s sense of place and time, moving to the wonderfully stylish music of a ten-member tango orchestra.

If you go

Florentine Opera performs "María de Buenos Aires" at 7:30 p.m. May 17 and 2:30 p.m. May 19 at Turner Hall Ballroom, 1040 Vel R. Phillips Ave. The May 17 performance is sold out. For tickets, visit florentineopera.org.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Florentine's tango opera 'Maria de Buenos Aires' an immersive show