MEDIUM RARE
As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Thus Mariel Ilusorio, pianist, and Joshua Cerafica, young flutist, teamed up to celebrate the music of Astor Piazzolla, who in 1986 composed a four-movement suite in honor of a dance that was once banned, like the novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by the Roman Catholic Church.
Tango is, as far as my two left feet are concerned, an art form in itself. Tango!, condemned during the last century for its sensuousness, is today celebrated for its drama and romance. You have to see how they dance the tango in Argentina, where it was popularized after being imported from its neighbor, Uruguay, to understand why fuddy-duddies would see “sin” written all over it – from the choreography to body movements, even the dramatic pauses here and there.
In Buenos Aires, the bars and nightclubs are better described as tanguerias, which should be self-explanatory. The female dancers are garbed in red or black, red and black, in longish, ruffled skirts stopping inches above the ankles for their audience to appreciate the choreography and footwork. Invariably, the senoritas wear their hair long and black, like a waterfall at night. No, their theme song is not “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.” (You could cry from the cigarette smoke, though.)
A plane ride from Manila, which is practically on the equator, to Buenos Aires, Argentina in South America, is no joke. When I went to Argentina decades ago, the trip took 37 hours, with a stopover in Cairo. Jet planes may fly faster these days but the Far East, where we are, is still a long away from down South.
Mariel Ilusorio announced she is now her own producer, and to show their support, her mom Sylvia and aunt Lin were present at last Saturday’s performance at Sunshine Place in Makati; as were a group of diplomats, whom I overheard speaking in Spanish – were they from Argentina or Spain?
Mariel has previously teamed up with a harpist, a soprano with her tenor husband, and several other soloists and vocalists. If a pianist is not heard, where is the music? Can we compare such music to the sound of a tree falling in the forest where there is no one to hear the crash?
