Julia Migenes - Tango show "La Argentina"
Julia Migenes was born in New York, her mother was Puerto Rican and her father Greek. Her choice of career was decided when she was given the role of Madame Butterfly’s child. A few years later she became a student in the Manhattan School for the Performing Arts. It was here that she attracted the attention of Leonard Bernstein, and he chose her as a soloist for one of his “Young People’s Concerts”. Later she became a member of the original cast of Fiddler on the Roof with Zero Mostel, then played the part of Maria in West Side Story.
Her career as an opera singer began with a substitution (New York, MET, Lulu). Her fame reached Europe too. Maurice Béjart found the ideal Salome in her: a wonderful singer who could also dance. This role helped Migenes to reach the screen too: the Italian film director Francesco Rosi was preparing to make a film of Carmen, he too was looking for an artist who could dance and sing and was sensual enough to present the burning passion of the role. This is how Julia Migenes won a role in what has since become a cult film in the filmed opera genre. Julia Migenes won a Grammy Award for the soundtrack and also a world-wide reputation that gave her access to the world’s major stages.
Julia Migenes has made more than twenty recordings. Among the most recent: “Vienna” conducted by Lalo Schifrin, a Gold record six months after its release; in 1996, “Man of la Mancha” (“L’homme de la Mancha”), conducted and arranged by Paul Gemignani, with Placido Domingo, Samuel Ramey, Mandy Patinkin; in 1999, “Robert Stolz” and “The music of Franz Lehar” for BBC and in 2000, Donizetti’s “Catarina Cornaro”.
In 1998, Julia Migenes wrote “Diva on the Verge”, a one-woman-show mingling monologue and opera often mocking its rigid world, revealing her daring wit and sense of humour. In 1999, she performed this show in French in Paris and French-speaking countries of Europe. In 2001 she created “Passions Latines” presenting, among others, the music and dances of the land of her ancestors, Cuban songs and dances, flamenco and tango. In March 2002 this production was also staged in the Paris Olympia. In 2003 Julia Migenes is to play one of the leading roles in Péter Eötvös’s new opera, Angel in America, to be produced in the Théâtre du Châtelet and numerous other leading stages around the world.

Maria de Buenos Aires
Astor Piazzolla’s only opera is about the exciting history of the tango, in the original version.
Netherlands - Argentinean coproduction, performance in Spanish.
Astor Piazzolla’s ambitious work, in which almost all the elements of his compositions can be found. Its theme is a celebration of Maria, the personified tango, the spirit of Buenos Aires and also a protest against those who only want to exploit her for commercial purposes.
Piazzolla and his librettist, Horacio Ferrer draw on South African rhythms closely related to the tango and poems to tell the story. The main elements of the opera are the emotions and the rhythm.
El Duente, ‘the spirit’ awakens his love, Maria, from death. Maria is the soul of Buenos Aires, she personifies the tango. She embodies all the longings of those who came to the Argentine capital in the hope of becoming rich but who live a life without hope in the dark and dreary backyards. Maria understands and speaks the melancholy language of their sorrows and pain. She lives by night, for the Argentine heart only opens up at night when they dance the tango. Tango-Maria becomes a wild passion, a welcome guest in the dancehalls of the world, but her time suddenly runs out. A bullet from her accompanist, Bandoneon ends her life. Her soul descends to the underworld and only her formless body lives on for the sake of the tourists. She becomes a mere advertisement.
The ‘spirit’ cannot stand this any longer. He breathes new life into the empty body which, over the course of time will have descendants, and the tango, the real Tango lives, celebrating its golden age.

Arriaga Quartet & Tango
The string quartet was formed in 1980 by young artists graduating from the Brussels Royal Academy of Music and the Juilliard School, New York (members: Michael Guttman, Ivo Lintermans – violin, Jacques Dupriez – viola, Luc Tooten – cello). Their artistic ideal was shaped by the Belgian violin school and the interpretations of the Juilliard Quartet. The ensemble is named after Juan Chrisostomo de Arriga (1806–1826), known as the Spanish Mozart. Their repertoire is often composed of unusual pieces and works of rarely played composers. Their recordings of quartets by Arriaga, Milhaud, Meulemans, Westerlinck, and Vieuxtemps have been acclaimed by critics. They often perform modern music and they have been awarded the prize of Belgian composers (Prix Fuga) in recognition of their work. They have founded their own annual festival (Bruges) and are welcome guests at the big European festivals.

Anželika Cholina, the choreographer of this performance based on the musical world of Astor Piazzolla, was born in Vilnius in 1970. She graduated from the Vilnius Ballet School in 1989, then continued her studies in the Moscow Theatre Academy, graduating in 1996 as a dancer-choreographer. She created her first works in the early 1990s, as a student of choreography in Moscow: these choreographic miniatures were followed in 1993 by her first full-length, one-act ballet, The Life of the Street, for students of the Vilnius Ballet School. In 1994 she created Bolero based on the music of Ravel, a choreography for the Lithuanian National Opera’s Ballet Ensemble. In the following years she produced a series of opera choreographies and continued her dance miniatures. In 1996 her first two-act ballet, Medea, was premiered. From that year she has also been working as a choreographer for fashion shows and then also for films.
In 1998 Cholina choreographed a contemporary dance performance titled Women’s Songs, drawing on the music and ideas of Marlene Dietrich’s songs, and in the same year she also produced a Carmen. In 1999 she choreographed a performance titled Coco in collaboration with the director O. Koršunovas – the piece was performed as the overture to the In Vogue International Fashion Festival held in Vilnius. In 2000 the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre staged her choreography of The House of Bernarda Alba. In the same year she made her debut in London’s Millennium Dome with the Tango in F now to be shown in Budapest; it was also performed one year later by the dancers of her own company, the Anželika Cholina Dance Theatre. In the past three years Cholina has been producing choreographies for her own company which she formed in December 2000. They regularly hold their premieres in the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. Last year the choreographer presented a dance drama titled Love and this year a Romeo and Juliet, both with her own company. The latter was her most ambitious work to date: the performance involves twenty-four artists – opera singers, actors and dancers.
Anželika Cholina is internationally recognised as the leading figure of Lithuanian dance. In the ten years of her career she has created five full-length dance dramas and around forty miniatures. Her basic aim in her energetic, expressive creations is to combine the tools of dance and drama to create a new quality of performing arts.
Anželika Cholina on the performance: “This is perhaps my emotionally richest performance. The process of its creation was extremely important and exciting for me. I encountered a great variety of roles and performers and I had to reveal them first of all to themselves. This piece demands raw emotions, which is why it sometimes happens that the performers wound each other psychologically on the stage – the performers therefore need to remind themselves again and again: this is only theatre … the drama melts away the borderline between theatre and reality.”

The programme titled Flamenco-Tango Fusion is the latest venture of flamenco dance star and choreographer Maria Serrano and her company. Knowing Serrano’s art there can be no doubt that it will win the approval of audiences who like high standard, authentic Latin dances and spectacular shows. We will witness the encounter and blending of two different music and dance styles; the aim of this fusion is to place them side by side in order to create a new and unusual, magic mix. The leading figures are two Argentinean dancers who, in despair at the situation in their country, decide to emigrate and seek their fortune in Spain, the birthplace of their ancestors who, centuries ago, began a new life in the New World. The tango artists go to Seville to find their roots and are touched by the spirit of flamenco: so begins the enchanting story of flamenco, love, passion and melancholy.
There are two dance pairs on the stage: Maria Serrano and José Galan as the flamenco dancers, while their Argentinean partners are naturally a tango dance pair. The two dance pairs present their own dance style in its pure, authentic form. But then suddenly there is a change of partners: with the encounter of the dancers the two trends “discover” each other, then begin to blend and merge. The dancers are accompanied by six tango and flamenco musicians: the flamenco guitar meets the bandoneon, the flamenco singer begins to sing the Argentinean tango. The two imposing styles combine in the Latin passion characteristic of them both.
Maria del Mar Serrano Rebollo, better known as Maria Serrano, was born in Seville. From early childhood on she was taught flamenco by Seville’s best and most famous flamenco teachers. Her talent was recognised by such figures as the grand lady of the genre Carmen Montoya and her daughter Carmelilla, José Galván, and Javier Barón. Because of her magnetic personality, the press often calls her the voodoo queen of flamenco. She gained world fame in the mid-nineties: she succeeded in winning the whole of Europe within a few years with her compositions. Die Welt called her simply ‘The queen of flamenco”. Serrano made her debut in Hungary at last year’s Budapest Spring Festival. Her enormously successful Ritmo programme, a show with a company of nineteen dancers accompanied by live music was also an exciting and magical blend of two seemingly remote styles: the passionate worlds of traditional Spanish and Cuban dance.

The programme titled Flamenco-Tango Fusion is the latest venture of flamenco dance star and choreographer Maria Serrano and her company. Knowing Serrano’s art there can be no doubt that it will win the approval of audiences who like high standard, authentic Latin dances and spectacular shows. We will witness the encounter and blending of two different music and dance styles; the aim of this fusion is to place them side by side in order to create a new and unusual, magic mix. The leading figures are two Argentinean dancers who, in despair at the situation in their country, decide to emigrate and seek their fortune in Spain, the birthplace of their ancestors who, centuries ago, began a new life in the New World. The tango artists go to Seville to find their roots and are touched by the spirit of flamenco: so begins the enchanting story of flamenco, love, passion and melancholy.
There are two dance pairs on the stage: Maria Serrano and José Galan as the flamenco dancers, while their Argentinean partners are naturally a tango dance pair. The two dance pairs present their own dance style in its pure, authentic form. But then suddenly there is a change of partners: with the encounter of the dancers the two trends “discover” each other, then begin to blend and merge. The dancers are accompanied by six tango and flamenco musicians: the flamenco guitar meets the bandoneon, the flamenco singer begins to sing the Argentinean tango. The two imposing styles combine in the Latin passion characteristic of them both.
Maria del Mar Serrano Rebollo, better known as Maria Serrano, was born in Seville. From early childhood on she was taught flamenco by Seville’s best and most famous flamenco teachers. Her talent was recognised by such figures as the grand lady of the genre Carmen Montoya and her daughter Carmelilla, José Galván, and Javier Barón. Because of her magnetic personality, the press often calls her the voodoo queen of flamenco. She gained world fame in the mid-nineties: she succeeded in winning the whole of Europe within a few years with her compositions. Die Welt called her simply ‘The queen of flamenco”. Serrano made her debut in Hungary at last year’s Budapest Spring Festival. Her enormously successful Ritmo programme, a show with a company of nineteen dancers accompanied by live music was also an exciting and magical blend of two seemingly remote styles: the passionate worlds of traditional Spanish and Cuban dance.