Elena Roger, in Piaf, the word magnificent is too small

Elena Ruggero is owned In truth it has been owned by Edith Piaf since she first played the Paris Sparrow, first in London, and then here, in 2009 and in the same Liceo Theater which reopened this Tuesday, July 26, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the oldest theater in Buenos Aires.

Vulgar, hungry, sincere, passionate, not at all selfish. Spicy. This is the Piaf that runs through Ruggero’s veins, which swell when he sings No, I don’t regret it or life in pink. She glued it to us rather than tattooed it on her skin.

It’s just that talking about Piaf is talking about Elena. It’s still incredible that with his diminutive physique he can endure the wear and tear – not to mention the sacrifice – that his extraordinary stage performance demands of him. The power of his voice, even when he whispers, the intonation of Cayengo, even if he doesn’t sing the tango. The interpretation, which should be capitalized. The presence.

This is when the word magnificent is small.

How to say, not even think that this Elena is more mature than the one we saw dedicating herself and giving herself as Piaf thirteen years ago, if she does it with the same solvency, the same fire and the same excellent vocal conditions. Elena is Piaf, and it is difficult to imagine Piaf without thinking of Elena.

The staging is almost identical to that produced by Adrián Suar in 2009. The director of the repository is Edgardo Millán, and Jamie Lloyd, who directed the play written by Pam Gems in London and Buenos Aires, also came to supervise it. .

There aren’t many scenography elements that stand out, more than a standing microphone, a wheelchair and some other elements, because the feeling of the spaces is achieved with lighting effects. The lighting, with white, yellow, soft or powerful lamps, always obtains an intoxicating effect, in each of the scenes.

And if we remember in particular the one in the ring, when Edith meets Marcel Cerdan, “The Moroccan Bomber”, it seems incredible that we too feel the same tingling in the arms, which causes goosebumps.

It is that the feeling, thirteen years ago and today, is that we are witnessing an important spectacle. Here’s what it looks like Broadway or in London’s West End.

Piaf tells the life of the singer, from when she sang loudly in the streets, her time in different Parisian stages, her participation in the Resistance with the arrival of Nazism, her performances in New York, until her death. She had husbands, many other lovers and a daughter who died at the age of two, to whom she could not say goodbye.

In that huge span of time, in all the scenes, there is Elena Roger. All time. She does not rest. If we don’t see her, trapped and hypnotized, we look for her on either side of the stage to see her return. If she leaves, she disappears from the scene, it is to enter immediately for a change of character, when this does not happen directly in front of the audience.

The Liceo room maintains the tables with chairs and bedside tables of the time Cabaret (the theater closed on March 15, 2020) and 28 months later it returns to receive its audience, which has also been renovated. But the audience hasn’t changed, which it inherited from the original setting of the Cabaret of the old days, for example, from Studio 54 in the middle of Broadway.

And it is probably a stage space, due to its size, ideal for this work and for the performance and realization of Elena Roger.

And just as he delivers himself up there on stage, we – all of us – surrender to a final endless applause.

“Piaf”

Excellent

musical drama. Author: Gems of Pam. Address: Jamie Lloyd. With: Elena Roger, Julia Calvo, Rodrigo Pedreira, Natalia Cociuffo, Diego Jaraz, Iván Espeche. Stay: Lyceum. Tickets from $ 1,000 (youth group, up to age 25) to $ 6,500.