Piazzolla, Astor

1) the full score, reproduced from the composer's manuscript, comprising sixteen cuadros, with autograph additions, alterations and annotations in pencil and red ink, including vocal passages added above the score throughout Cuadro I ('Alevare'), autograph parts for bandoneon and guitar added on the staves in No.2 ('Tema de María'), with 2 copies of No.5 ('Fuga y Misterio') and No.14 ('Allegro tangabile'), respectively rejected or accepted by Piazzolla, autograph additions to No.8 ('Miserere Canyengue') and No.15 ('Milonga de la Anunciación') in red ink, his annotations to the instrumentation on the title, additional notes, marked up for the conductor, and other annotations and markings in pencil, together with a few additions in another hand in black ink in No.14,  c.550 pages, folio (c.34 x 22cm), 16-stave paper ("Principe 3116 Ind. Arg."), the numbers in separate gatherings, each paginated, the joints reinforced, the leaves secured with small pieces of tape

2) typescript of the libretto by Horacio Ferrer, signed by him on the cover and at the end, with corrections and annotations throughout in blue-black ink, also annotated by Piazzolla with indications of his instrumentation and setting for the opera ("Bandoneon, Violin, Piano, Guitara, Banjo"), 37 pages, 4to, spine and cover reinforced with tape, [1968]

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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This is the unpublished full score of the original version of Piazzolla's 'operita' María de Buenos Aires, with the composer's autograph additions and alterations.  It is not the fully-fledged opera-tango that Piazzolla later fashioned from it, and is still dominated by instrumental textures rather than vocal ones.  A vocal score was published in Buenos Aires in 1973; the original edition is rare, although reprints were issued in c.1999 and 2002.

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was the greatest composer of the tango, which he fused with classical and jazz techniques to form the tango nuevo. The characteristic Argentinian instrumental colours, such as the use of the bandoneón, are enriched with "classical" orchestral instruments, counterpoint, chromaticism, novel instrumental forms and elements of jazz, especially jazz-fugue.  Piazzolla studied with Ginastera in Buenos Aires and with Boulanger in Paris, and collaborated with many classical musicians.  He is comparable in some respects to Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, but his repertory and compositions set him apart.

María de Buenos Aires was premiered at the Sala Pianeta in Buenos Aires May 1968.  Piazzolla designates this chamber opera as an 'operita' in two parts, with a prominent speaking role for the narrator "El Duende" (a goblin, representing the underworld of the city).   In 1987, he added six extra numbers and expanded the work with additional characters and instruments (see our sale on 20 November 2014, lot 179).  Compared with the revision, this original version is dominated by instrumental jazz-tango movements, the sound of the bandoneón and the spoken narrations of "El Deunde".  There are few vocal parts, and no chorus, although María herself mostly sings throughout. 

The opera has a surreal plot, not unlike a tango reintepretation of Lulu, describing the fate of María, a girl from the barrios in Buenos Aires, who loves Gorrión Porteño.  She is led into prostitution in a scene dominated by a jazz-fugue (No.5), where thieves and brothel-keepers encompass her death (No.8). The Segunda Parte begins with María's funeral scene No.9: 'Contramilonga a la Funerale (por la primera muerte de María').  María's ghost ('La Sombra de María'), forces himself on her, procreating a "child María", but not before subjecting her to a series of tests, including bizarre scenes with analysts (No.12) and a bordello of puppets (No.13).