So, as of Saturday morning, I was not certain how we would spend the evening. Looking for something a little different, I saw that there was a concert by two Latin American singers at Lisner Auditorium that night, Tania Libertad and Jorge Drexler. The price was right, tickets were available, and so we went.
We did not know at all what to expect, having never heard either of the headliners. I had seen some of the ads, which touted the fact that these two stars were going to be on the same stage. I looked up both on Google, and saw that Libertad was Peruvian, but lived in Mexico, and that Drexler was from Uruguay but lived in Spain. I also saw that Drexler had written the theme music to "Motorcycle Diaries", the movie about the life of Che Guevera (interestingly, like Che, Jorge is a physician by training), and that he had won an academy award for his efforts. I had not seen the movie (but wanted to), and I certainly did not know the song.
When we picked up our ticket, I saw that Drexler's name was bigger than Libertad's. This surprised me, since is contradicted the pre-show publicity I had seen.
There were no programs.
We took our seats in the big auditorium. It was announced that Libertad would be first, followed by an intermission, followed by Drexler.
Libertad came on with four musicians, two keyboards, and guitar (bass?) and drums.
She is a big woman with a big voice. She is not 'pop', but more like a singer of stories, who wails the stories. Her voice has no rhythm; it's qualities are almost, but not quite, operatic. She is very good. She is very loud. Her accompaniment was odd, to my taste. I guess I would call it fusion; it was much more modern than she was, it played with different (and competing rhythms), particulary in the person of the drummer (who played on drums more akin to folks drums than snare drums). She was well received. She may have spoken no English; if she did, you sure couldn't tell it.
After the intermission, Drexler came on. Everyone seemed to know him. He was all by himself, with his amplified acoustic guitar and his keyboard/synthesizer. He played both. He spoke and sang in two languages. He was very charming, very disarming, and had an infectious smile. His voice does not nearly have the calibre of Libertad's; but he is clearly much more engaging. By himself on this big stage, he was your friend. He got raves. He sang three encores. He took bows. He loved Washington, and Washington seemed to love him back.
Libertad did not come back on for a bow; it was like she was already back in Mexico.
The concert was reviewed in the Post Tuesday morning. Drexler got a very good review (it was pretty much as I said above). Libertad was not even mentioned.
What happened to Tania Libertad???
