Amadeus

Sunday night was a huge, free, outdoor concert in Palermo, celebrating the 250th anniversary ofMozart's birth. Some philharmonic orchestra and a bunch of soloists. To set up the stage they blocked off Avenida Libertador, one of the widest and most important avenues in Buenos Aires. Sort of like what they do for the Jazz Fest in Montreal, if Ste-Catherine were 10 lanes wide.

As me and my friends came by on the bus, I saw the huge crowd and commented it must be for the Mozart concert. They were like, "No way! THAT many people for MOZART? It must be a football game or something, ha ha ha."

But all those people WERE there for Mozart! Newspapers reported the next day that there were around 100 000 people there. It had the atmoshere of a rock concert. Huge stage, big screens and speakers set up so that those in the back could see what was going on on stage. People with chairs and blankets and guys going around selling beer and pop. There were old people and families and even a gang of punky goth kids standing next to us. Random.

The program was basically Mozart's Greatest Hits. All his most well-known stuff; Symphony No. 40, Rondo Alla Turca, the most famous arias from Don Giovanni, the Magic Flute and the Marriage of Figaro. Still, I was sure that people would get bored and start to leave after the first couple of pieces. And though some did, most stayed, and it was one the most attentive outdoor audiences I've ever seen.

Two things about the concert were so hilarious and SO Argentinian. One was the finale of the show. They had like 50 choirs and the full orchestra peforming parts of Mozart's Requiem. But to mark the end of the concert, they had fireworks. So you had all these people singing and playing and you couldn't hear crap. But everyone was ooh-ing and aw-ing over the fireworks.

Then when the concert ended, the 100 000 people that were there started streaming towards the commercial streets of Palermo to take the bus and subway to get home. The streets surrounding the concert site were chaos; crowds of people blocking the streets, cars not being able to get through, people fighting over taxis, cars smashing into each other, taxi drivers arguing with policemen, drivers arguing with policemen, pedestrians arguing with policemen. It was sort of ironic that this nice peaceful concert of Mozart¡s music invoked the caos that insued afterwards. But that's Argentina for you.

Here's a photo slide show of the concert. Unfortunately it doesn't include pictures of the "after-concert"...