The performance is entirely in French with certain short passages in Spanish.
What if Toulouse-Lautrec had gone to Buenos Aires?
This is the hypothesis put forward by Franco-Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar in his wonderful text Un Gotán pour Lautrec, published in 1980. Somewhere between fiction and reality, he brings together Toulouse-Lautrec's favorite subject, brothels, and the world of tango, a genre which owes its early development to the environment of 19th century prostitution.
The story is based on Toulouse-Lautrec's famous painting Le Salon de la rue des Moulins, on display at the Musée d'Albi, which depicts a prostitute named Mireille, one of Toulouse-Lautrec's favorite models.
Mireille left one day to try her luck in Argentina, but never returned...
She certainly knew tango, and Cortázar supposes that she inspired this text performed by Carlos Gardel: "Do you remember, old friend, the blonde girl, Mireya?"
Among quotes taken from original tango lyrics, Cortázar imagines destinies that cross the Atlantic, featuring the figure of the prostitute, a recurrent theme in tango lyrics: Margot, Yvette, Yvonne, Margarita and Griseta.
So many parallels and encounters, real or imagined, in the Buenos Aires of yesteryear, so close to the Montmartre and Moulin Rouge that Lautrec knew and loved!
The spectator is plunged into the graphic universe of the famous painter, embodied by the artist Nelly Baron : sketches from life, oil paintings and posters in the style of Toulouse-Lautrec lithographs, are executed for the eye of a camera that captures every gesture live.
Projected onto a large screen, the spectator is able to experience the fascination of the entire creative process!
Carried by Solange Bazely's warm voice, the spoken performance of Cortázar's text turns into a journey, thanks to the soundtrack created especially for the show. Between tangos sung in the original language (Spanish), soundscapes and guitar themes, the audience is transported into the South American atmosphere of the early 20th century.
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