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Alex: Arrabal ‘a feast for the senses’
Arrabal, the tango rock musical is now playing its world premiere engagement in Toronto.
The narrative is based on a bleak era in Argentina’s past: the brutal military dictatorship which decimated Argentina in 1973.
Composer Gustavo Santaolalla remembers. “These people have committed awful, awful crimes.”
“They created, Jorge Rafael Videla, with the head of this military dictatorship, created the word ‘desaparecidos’. He came on national television saying ‘these people are not in jail, these people have disappeared.’ Now imagine that for a father, for a mother, for a family member, to say that somebody that you love just disappeared.”
The tango transforms the tragic theme into entertainment as this cultural symbol amplifies the struggling optimism of oppressed people.
Sergio Trujillo is director and choreographer. “The range of emotion that you go through in Gustavo’s music lends itself to be able to tell that story. Tango can be limiting in terms of how you can tell the story through tango, because it’s all partnering.”
Trujillo’s talent is supreme as Arrabal becomes a feast for the senses, blending emotions and sensuous dancing, dazzling to the eye, sizzling to the ear.
Santaolalla says “we are trying really to make music that kind of expresses who we are today, we are a mixture of many things.”
“But also, we have 40 years of rock in Argentina, we have electronic music, we have hip hop, and all that is part of our culture today.”
Arrabal is a song and dance fable that helps heal the searing scars of Argentina’s dark and troubled past.
The world premiere run of Arrabal continues through April 20th at Toronto’s Panasonic Theatre.
