The Vittoriosa Rock Opera Group is presenting the musical Evita, after last year’s highly successful rendition of Night Fever. Evita depicts part of the turbulent history of Argentina.
Evita, featuring some of the classic songs, including Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, and Another Suitcase in Another Hall, is being staged open-air in play back at the newly restored courtyard of the Magistral Palace, which will serve as a backdrop.
This courtyard has been meticulously restored, after restoration was carried out on the Place itself, the oldest standing edifice in the Fort. Evita is being presented to the general public on Friday 9 and Sunday 11 June, at 8.30pm.
Directed by the duo Alan Cassar and Roderick Castillo, Evita is based on the musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It narrates the story of Eva Peron, the second wife of the Argentine dictator, Juan Peron.
Evita is the friendly, family version of the proper name Eva, or better Eva Maria Duarte, who was born on 7 May 1919, in the small town of La Union, near Buenos Aires. She was the youngest of five illegitimate children of Juan Duarte. After the death of her father in a car accident, her family was forced to move to Junin. At the tender age of 15 she decided to try her luck in the capital.
The story goes back to July 1952. A young Argentine student, Che, is among the audience in a Buenos Aires cinema when the film is stopped by an announcement that Eva Peron is dead. Eva’s funeral is majestic in many ways.
Flashback to 1934, a night club in Junin. Eva Duarte is still 15 when she meets the club singer Augustin Magaldi and pleads with him to take her with him to the big city – Buenos Aires. He is reluctant at first, but then she gets her way.
Once in Buenos Aires, Eva quickly disposes of Magaldi and works her way through a string of men, each of whom helps her climb the ladder of fame and fortune. She becomes a successful model, broadcaster and film actress.
At a charity concert, she meets Peron, and both realise that each has something the other wants. From now on Eva looks forward to a bright political future. In the meantime she evicts Peron’s mistress from his flat, and gradually moves into Peron’s life.
Peron is an ambitious young army officer, serving in the right-wing government of the time. When he falls afoul of the government, he is imprisoned. Eva uses her position as a celebrity and radio performer to get him released.
As the political situation becomes even more uncertain, it is Eva rather than Peron, who is more determined that he should try for the highest prize in Argentina – the presidency, supported by the workers and the country’s poor.
Juan Peron is eventually elected President of Argentina on June 4, 1946. It’s a memorable day for him, but especially for his wife Eva, whom he had married in October of the previous year. On the day of his inauguration as President, Eva is brilliant, not just in her striking appearance, but more important perhaps, in the highly emotional speech she delivers on this occasion.
Once Juan Peron becomes President of Argentina, Eva becomes the most powerful woman in the country, probably because of her zeal to help the poor. But she is brutally snubbed by Argentina’s high society and members of the aristocracy.
She embarks on a tour of a number of European capitals to rally support for her husband’s government, and on return to Argentina she is resolved to tackle the plight of the poor. Notwithstanding, Che remains critical, pointing out that the regime had to date done little or nothing to improve the lives of those Eva claims to represent – the working class.
In response, she diverts government money from society-led charities, and starts the Eva Peron Foundation. As its president, she works tirelessly to directly better the lot of Argentina’s poor. For this work, and for having risen from poor origins to glory, she is beloved by huge masses of her fellow citizens. Che’s disenchantment with Eva is however total. He sneers at those who adore her, and questions her motives.
Peron and Eva discuss the worsening situation: he is losing his grip on the government, she is losing her strength. Eva refuses to give into her illness, and resolves to become vice-president. But the opposition to her from the army is too great: more important her body lets her down. She knows that she is dying, and makes a broadcast to the nation, rejecting the post of vice-president. She dies of uterine cancer in July 1952, at age 33. It is a tragedy for Argentina.
Evita brings together more than 80 young people, and a number of their parents, who worked together tirelessly for the last six months to produce a moving and exciting show. Apart from acting the various parts, the members were responsible for the stage props, the choreography, the costumes design, and all the other complex details that such production. Lights by Nexos Lighting Technology, and sound by A-Sound.
Evita is being produced by the Kumitat Festi Esterni San Lawrenz, and the Sezzjoni Zghazagh Palmizi of the parish of Vittoriosa.
Tickets for Evita are on sale at the Parish Hall, Victory Square, Vittoriosa, or on hotlines 9988 4321 or 7900 0751.