“I Am Maria, From Buenos Aires” was a tango opera staged in Buenos Aires in 1968 with music by Astor Piazzolla and libretto (text) by Horacio Ferrer. In the first part Maria tells of her experiences as a prostitute and in the second part after her death, a shadow Maria continues the story after watching the actions of various underworld characters that populated her neighbourhood.
An interesting feature of the production was that Piazzolla who had created the music for the principal character, fell so much in love with her that he asked her husband for her hand in marriage, saying such a beauty as hers was created only for music - and he had the music. So enraged was the woman that she walked out on him and he had to quickly arrange another actress in time for the première. The song is beautifully rendered by Soprano and Mezzo Soprano Carolina Figueiredo and Veronica Milagres, two young Goan-Portuguese women who together with Veronica’s husband Carlos Garcia, form the Portu-Goesas trio. They sing mandos exceptionally well too. https://youtu.be/nnQ3ZNrWrOU Roland. Toronto.
