Poetry and tango are the essential ingredients, the raw material with which Héctor Alterio chooses to greet the city where he was born 93 years ago. In this new return to Argentina, after 47 years living in Spain, first driven into exile and then of his own free will, the actor takes the Astros stage with In Buenos Aires. And she does it to recite a moved and profound farewell.

Under the direction of his wife, psychoanalyst Ángela Bacaicoa, and with collaboration on stage by the pianist Juan Esteban Cuacciother recites texts by the Spanish León Felipehis favorite poet, and from whom he remembers the tangos Cátulo Castillo, Ástor Piazzolla, Enrique Cadícamo, Horacio Ferrer and Eladia Blázquez.

Thus, with something from Spain and something from Argentina, he summarizes the fundamental traces that have marked his career of over 70 years and his own life. Alterio shares from the stage that lifeblood that has nourished his art and made him a point of reference in his profession. Poetry and tango, words and music full of memories in front of an audience that seems to have been waiting for him for decades.

With a standing ovation, Alterio appears on stage as someone who arrives in his living room and is surprised by the visitors. With a smile of genuine joy he opens the applause and shakes hands from a distance as if to touch each one to thank him. With a sense of humor that will always be present throughout the show, she says, “Okay, now sit down everybody.”

The man who starred in dozens of films, series and plays on both sides of the Atlantic, who paved the way for so many Argentine colleagues who are now well received in Spain, the same one who has never quite lost his porteño accentthe son of Italian immigrants who grew up in the Chacarita neighborhood, is there in front of hundreds of witnesses to say hello.

Goodbyes are almost never easy, they always come with a lump in the throat, at least those of this style that force us to think about the passage of time. But Héctor, the one who started playing while playing, the one who got a taste for the game when he discovered that his grace attracted attention, that he made his friends laugh, is now on stage to tell his story, nostalgic, but also cheerful.

In a previous interview with clarion, He confessed that maybe he didn’t remember some lyrics when he was on stage. Nobody cares as long as there are lecterns to keep notes. Because, more than mechanical memory, what counts is saying, communicating. Alterio, like few others, knows how to convey, create atmosphere, show intention. The message arrives. The sensation is immediately captured.

Just like Alterio, the actor, managed with his talent to ensure that each character he played aroused specific sensations and feelings, now it is Alterio, the man, who arouses tenderness, admiration, joy, melancholy, empathy in every spectator.

At this point in her life, she senses that everything will be a game, part lie and part truth, improvising songs she loves, poems that come to mind, and letting those memories piece together a story. progress and setbacks and some failures until it materialized,” he said in an interview with clarion.

The show had been in the making for some time and before his arrival at the Astros, the actor presented it in a hall in Madrid: “I like to be heard and I like to listen. All this, plus the inevitable passing of the years, somehow reflects in In Buenos Aires. The project has been realized and is still being realized, the public enjoy it a lot and I a lot more“, He added.

This is perceived and a lot in the room. During the show period, with a luxury partner like Cuacci, Alterio brings back childhood memories reflected in tango lyrics. And he lays bare his wounds of exile and distance in the words of León Felipe, the Spanish exile in Mexico, who represents him as the echo of a distant life that resonates in his own experience.

“The person who takes a ticket and goes to the theater and sits down to watch a play, I don’t know who he is, I’ve never seen him in my life and I certainly never will. But that man took the time to buy ticket, go to the theater and sit there in the audience. I don’t know it but I’m sorry, I know it’s there. I feel it,” he said in an interview with clarion.

And this is how the audience feels it, who seem to want to embrace him with every applause, appease him in his pain and thank him for the emotion on the surface. The end is with song Neapolitan Mary Marisung a cappella, a tribute to its origins and that it is the gold brooch that closes the circle.

For that bond that manages to move, for many characters over the decades, for the intact humor and passion that Alterio offers and shares in his farewell, demonstrating how much the natural craft that is refined with experience is worth, and very much, accompanying him . He gives us his art, the one that will always allow us to tell each other soon.

Hero: Hector Alterio. Author and director: Angela Bacicoa. Musical direction and piano: Juan Esteban Quacci. Functions: Friday, Saturday and Sunday in April, at 8.30 pm at the Astros, Corrientes 746. Tickets: on www.teatro-astros.com or at the theater ticket office.