It all started in 1969. Since then, Joan Manuel Serrat and Argentina have a passionate love storywith regular meetings and an ongoing interest in seeing him live.
That custom will end this year, after a national tour called “El vicio de cantar” which began in Rosario, when the five recitals scheduled at the Movistar Arena (19-20-25-26-29), with positions sold out. The public will see it for the last time, closing a circle that lasted more than 50 years and which began when he came to sing hits like Penelope.
the story of a success
With Penelope, Serrat was the big winner of the Rio Song Festival in 1969, his stepping stone to Argentina. The theme was swept up and won awards for best performer, best lyrics, best music. It was quickly released as a single disc, with rainy weather on side b
Goodbye my love, don’t cry for me, I’ll be back before the leaves fall from the willows. Think of me, I will come back for you ”, promised Odysseus to his beloved before leaving for the Trojan War.
Later, Diego Torres covered the melody and added an Argentinian touch to the lyrics, but always keeping the essence of the story.
the letter was Inspired by Greek mythology, albeit with a somewhat different ending from the one described by Homer. The music was composed by Augusto Algueró and included arrangements by Serrat’s eternal traveling companion, Ricard Miralles.
Algueró has been one of the most relevant personalities in Spanish music since the late 1950s: he was born in Barcelona, like Serrat, and had to choose in his youth between medicine and music, which he was studying at the Catalan Conservatory.
He chose well. Composer, arranger, musical director, author of the soundtracks of almost a hundred films, as well as intense author of theater and TV series, his definition was: “Music is the most universal language that exists and for it I have given my life.”whole”.He died in Torremolinos in 2011, at the age of 77.
Greek mythology
In The odyssey, Penelope is a character to whom Homer attributes one of the epic poems within the work. She is the wife of the king of Ithaca, Ulysses, who has been waiting for more than twenty years for her husband to arrive from the Trojan War.
The song evokes this story as Penelope does not recognize her husband, as he disguises himself as a beggar as a ruse of the goddess Athena to be protected from those who persecute him, his enemies. But Penelope recognizes a distinctive trait of hers, a scar that Odysseus has worn on her leg since she was a child, so Athena returns her original image to her.
that first visit
He first arrived in ’69, when he was 25 years old. He was very successful in the huge carnival shows he was hired in at the time after the legendary TV appearances in Circular Saturdays of Mancera. He also made many inroads into the interior of the country,
On those trips Serrat did everything anyone who wants to be more than a tourist should do: he went to see football matches and to the Hippodrome to bet on horses, he loved Troilo and the tango, he knew the good restaurants in Buenos Aires, and made great friends.
Fifty-three years later comes the farewell, at least for the singer Serrat, because he has promised to continue visiting this country which has adopted him as one of its most beloved visitors.
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Source: Clarin
