Among many things, Tango’s description as a four-legged animal with two beating hearts, or the ultimate communication between two people, could be the ones that best encapsulate the pulsating emotional energy of this heart-conquering art form.
To give Doha a good dose of this, Argentinian mavericks Rocio Perez and Leandro Rouco will take the stage tomorrow (Monday) at Katara for what promises to be a most memorable tango music concert. It was seven years ago that Perez and Rouco began playing together, presenting their rich tango pieces across Buenos Aires and all over Argentina. Currently based in Doha, the duo has been keen on giving Qatar a taste of Argentine music and of their album Por espacio de otro tiempo.
A Katara spokesperson told Community, “The tango music concert, featuring the very talented Perez and Rouco, is organised by Katara, and will be held at the Katara Drama Theatre from 8pm to 10pm tomorrow.” The entry is free.
Last month, in an interview to Community, Rossana Surballe, ambassador of Argentina to Qatar, said that the Argentinian embassy has planned several events this year, the bicentennial year of Argentina as an independent country. The first of them is the Perez-Rouco folk and tango show, followed by Argentina’s National Day celebrations on May 25.
Perez and Rouco did a South American tour in 2011, performing in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia to a heartening response. They played in La casa de la cultura of Cuenca, Ecuador; Enlace Ciudadano of President Rafael Correa in Montañita Ecuador; in Nocturno, Comfamiliar Theatre in Pereira, Colombia; Amalgama cultural in Cali, Colombia; El patio del tango Medellín, Colombia, and the anniversary of Yanahuara district in Arequipa, Perú, among others. Moreover, they were supported by La casa de la cultura of Cuenca, the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and Amalgama Cultural, from Cali, Colombia.
It was during that tour that the duo developed the project for their first record together. This record explores the music of Buenos Aires from the beginning of the 20th century and their repertoire gleans precious insights of music from the city and the countryside: tangos, milongas, candombes, valses, estilos, zambas and creole songs.
After they received a subsidy from de Government of the City of Buenos Aires called BAMÚSICA that supports live music shows, in 2014, their project was declared of cultural interest by the Ministry of Culture of Government of Buenos Aires.
“In 2013, they won the contest that Estudio Urbano organises every year. In 2014, they recorded Por espacio de otro tiempo in that studio. Last year, they edited and presented it, again with the support of BAMÚSICA,” their bio says.
Their music, explain Perez and Rouco, tell stories that happened in Buenos Aires in another time. “The characters inhabit the same streets we walk today and many times one can almost see them, touch them, guess them. These stories came to us directly through our parents and grandparents. More than once we felt like we have been in those big dances in the Costanera, we have queued to buy ice, that we swam in the Río de la Plata and that we played in the crowded carnivals of that time. More than once we felt those memories like ours,” the artistes describe in a note on their music.
“These songs have these memories in them ... And as a familiar fragrance take us immediately to a moment or a place, we hope these songs are a way of going back to that Buenos Aires,” the artistes continue, “A city that nowadays is not the same that it used to be, but without that music, wouldn’t be what it is today. This music inhabits in and enriches the city, and finds a space among the big modern buildings that place it in a fundamental position in the musical map of the present Buenos Aires.”
The Argentinian Embassy has treated Doha to top quality tango before. In May 2014, as part of the celebration of the National Day of Argentina, Jorge Palacios and Jorge Marti’s sweet-toned classical guitars had transported the audience at Katara to the coasts of the Rio de la Plata.  In that one-hour show, Palacios and Marti had explored a range of complex rhythms and intricate guitar playing that spanned across the cultural heritage of the different provinces of Argentina.