Viewing entries tagged
Mariano Mores
Fans of the song “Sin palabras” have long speculated about the personal story behind the lyrics, ascribing to E. S. Discépolo all sorts of fears that his companion Tania was having an affair. Perhaps because the song works so well, or perhaps because the tango in general deals with such raw emotions, we see similar speculations arise with many numbers that were, in fact, written to order for the screen.
The first lady of tango Libertad Lamarque sings this tangazo in the 1943 film El fin de la noche (The End of the Night, dir. Alberto de Zavalía). The movie is an anti-Nazi film, set in occupied Paris…
José María Contursi hit his full stride in the early 1940s, and a tango like “En esta tarde gris” shows how he had become the Petrarch of the tango songbook, establishing romantic anguish as the theme of the decade.
Pascual Contursi had launched the tango on its narrative mission in 1916 with “Mi noche triste”… but by the advent of the 1940s the new generation was turning their focus inward to romantic themes. Foremost among these poets of intense longing was Pascual’s own son, José María Contursi.
The tango “Gricel” is a snapshot of a love affair which was to take over the life and career of José María Contursi, whose passion for the young Susana Gricel Viganó gave voice to many other tangos that share the imagery and longing of this one…
