Perhaps one day British audiences will get a chance to experience Astor Piazzolla's tango operita as he and the librettist, Horacio Ferrer, intended. But that moment is not brought any nearer by this new production, which is shared between the Norfolk and Norwich, Bath, and Buxton festivals, and directed by John Abulafia. The first opportunity to see Maria de Buenos Aires in this country, four years ago, was wretched enough; this, if anything, is worse. It is saved only from total worthlessness by a couple of strong performances and Piazzolla's imperishable score.
Ferrer's text is allusive, loaded with imagery; the narrative was designed as a metaphor for the history of the tango in Argentina. It charts Maria's rise from the slums of Buenos Aires to enjoy 15 minutes of fame as a singer and dancer in the city's nightclubs and strip joints, before she is destroyed by the world that created her, only to return as a ghost and to a rebirth in the final scene.
It may not be a strong narrative thread, but it could be dramatically serviceable. Obviously, though, it did not suit the purposes of Abulafia and designer Isla Shaw. They jettison nearly all of the story, preferring to see the work, first performed in 1968, as prophetic of the calamities that befell Argentina under the rule of the colonels in the following two decades. The text is loaded with statistics and homilies about the "disappeared" and the iniquities of the regime. The fragile balance between song, speech and instrumental music that Piazzolla and Ferrer worked hard to achieve is effectively destroyed.
For much of the time the action is baffling to behold; the rest is sanctimonious posturing. What should evoke a world of sleaze and corruption is made safe and dull, and contains what must be some of the least sexy tangos ever danced. The music is played well, if not edgily enough, by Tango Volcano, while Sébastian Soules sings the parts of El Payador and a psychoanalyst (no, don't ask) with real stylishness, of which there is precious little elsewhere.
· At Theatre Royal, Bath (01225 463362), on June 3 and 4, and Buxton Opera House (0845 127 2190) on July 12 and 22.
