That the world was and will be crap, we already know. Also that luck is great and that evil looks strangely without understanding. Enrique Santos Discépolo He is one of the great tango lyricists who taught us to understand Argentina and the world. His tangos are iconic: “Yira Yira” to “Confession”of “Tonight I’m getting drunk” to “Infamy”of “What a vachaché” to “Speechless”. And, of course, the iconic “Swap”which they sang Edmundo Rivero, Julio Sosa, Liberty Lamarque and also Caetano Veloso -exquisite-, Nacha Guevara, Serrat, Andres Calamaromany others. Gardel It didn’t arrive: the fateful plane stole it from us.
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But Discépolo was not only a brilliant composer. In fact, he came to music without intending to. He was an actor and playwright, and in tangos he found the possibility of synthesis that allowed him to be impetuous, vehement, grotesque. This is how he tells it Daniel Casablancawho, starting this Tuesday at 11 p.m., lends his body to Discepolín in “Nibbler”a six-episode miniseries—each episode is titled after a tango—that comes out on Public TV. Produced by Argentine Radio and Television and the National Librarythe series is directed by Mariano Mucci and they act, in addition to Casablanca, Carlos Portaluppi and Leticia Brediceamong others.
Daniel Casablanca, member of the group The Macocos —with those who, in fact, are on the billboard with the work “Kill Hamlet” at the CCC—, returns to dress as Discépolo after having made the work “Discepolín, harlequin fanatic” for three years, although now he is dealing with the last moments of his life. In July 1951, the popular poet was summoned by the media secretary Raul Apold to write some monologues for the radio in defense of Peronism. The series portrays the relationship between them, but, especially, the rebellion of an artist who broke the mold and who never lost the social perspective of his work.
“He was a star,” says Casablanca in dialogue with Infobae Culture. “He couldn’t go out on the street, everyone greeted him. With Tania they travel to Mexico, to Paris, in Spain she meets Lorca. He was a very important cultural figure. And he was very loved. Much loved.”
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Then, Peronism arises and Peron and Eva They ask him to make the propaganda speeches, which Discépolo accepts without asking for anything in return. At that time he did not write tangos because his thing had always been to give voice to the loser, the unprotected, and in those moments, he said, of hubbub and popular celebration it was difficult to do so. Discépolo commits to monologues and many people are against him.
—The reproduction of the period, the setting, is very striking. The series is of great quality.
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—I say this with respect to the Public TV: I think it is very important to do these projects. These miniseries can be made and, perhaps, later sold to platforms and reach the world. I have done a lot of subsidized theater. I worked a lot on it San Martin. I worked in the Encounter Channelin Paka Paka. And I also did ten years of commercial theater with “Knock Knock”. The truth is that, if these places did not exist, a part of our culture would not be there. Adrian Suar You will never take this product because they don’t give you the numbers, because it is another idea, it is another audience. We must defend what is ours. Argentina is not the only country that subsidizes culture and, furthermore, that is not where the money flows.
—How was working with Carlos Portaluppi, who plays Apold, the antagonist of Discépolo?
—Despite being a Peronist, Apold is my boss, he is the one who pressures me, the one who wants propaganda and doesn’t care about the artistic or the poetic. He asks for numbers, effective statistics. Apold represents the deepest right of Peronism. Apold is a heavy and messianic character. Always, in all governments, these characters exist.
—There is also Leticia Brédice, who plays Tania. What was that marriage like?
—We could say that it was a relationship… sick, symbiotic. They are a successful couple, for many years. It was always said that she was cheating on him, but recently it was discovered that he had a son in Mexico. In the biographies it was always said that he wanted to return to Mexico, but it is clear that he wanted to return to meet his son and perhaps stay with his Mexican partner. The story that is told is that he was in Mexico and that, when Tania finds out about her, he goes to look for him and tells her that if he did not return to her he would jump out of her window. They were on the 17th floor. He returns and finds out by letter that the girl in Mexico was pregnant.
Discépolo had planned to return, but, as he was in the middle of Perón’s campaign, he was going to do so when the elections were over, which were in November. And he again postponed the trip because Perón and Eva had invited him to spend Christmas with them. But he did not arrive: He died on December 23 weighing 37 kilos. “It is not clear if it was an eating problem, which was not talked about at that time, or it was the depression caused by the rift with the audience, or her bond with Tania, or the son she never met,” says Casablanca. .
—What did you look for in the new interpretation of Discépolo?
—The acting language is totally different from what I do in the theater, which is much more histrionic, clawnesque, game. This is an intimate Discépolo. But I was interested in social disciple what I had discovered in the movie “Four hearts”where he plays an emblematic character who owns the cabaret—something that Gardel also did—and who always throws out political phrases and is given to the grotesque.
—The grotesque is a genre very much ours.
—Of course, the grotesque is the River Plate theater. Is Sandrini; It is to make you laugh and make you cry. It is making you think through laughter. If we think about it, it is in our DNA. The grotesque is a tool. The Argentine public loves that. You see the characters and you recognize yourself in them, and it is a recognition that makes you laugh, but then it questions you and also moves you. It’s our way. I think that if we grab Shakespearesurely we make it grotesque.
—What remains from Discépolo’s time?
—It seems to me that it is in the memory of that time, of that brilliant Buenos Aires, awake all night like Paris. What a moment and what modernity those bars had, those political and philosophical gatherings! They brought all the theater that was being done in Italy, in Russia, in the United States. They brought the latest from everywhere. They were very cultured, very informed. And the sense of humor. When I see the monologues, I think that, poor Discépolo, I couldn’t believe that we are in the same place today. Maybe the merry-go-round is inevitable, maybe this is how the world spins on itself.
*“Mordisquito, you’re not going to tell me” will be seen every Tuesday at 10:30 p.m.
