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EVITA is an opera based on the
life story of Eva Perón, the second wife of the Argentine president Juan Perón.
Eva Duarte was born in 1919, illegitimate, poor, without privilege. She became
the most powerful woman her country had ever seen, the First Lady of Argentina
at the age of 27. She died in 1952 of cancer, aged 33.
ACT ONE
It
is the 26 July 1952. A young Argentine student, Che, is among the audience in a
Buenos Aires cinema when the film is stopped by an announcement that Eva Perón,
"the spiritual leader of the nation, has entered immortality".
Eva's
funeral is majestic, a combination of the magnificent excesses of the Vatican
and of Hollywood [REQUIEM FOR EVITA]. Huge crowds, much pageantry, wailing and
lamentation. Che is the only non-participant [OH WHAT A CIRCUS].
Che
in EVITA is at times a narrator, at times an observer, at times simply a device
that enables the authors to place Eva in a situation where she is confronted
with direct personal criticism. There is no evidence whatsoever that Che
Guevara ever met Eva Perón or became in any way involved with her, but the
character Che in EVITA is based upon this legendary revolutionary. He was,
however, an Argentine born in 1928 and would therefore have been 17 when the
Peróns came to power and 24 when Eva died. He became strongly opposed to the Peronist
regime during Eva’s lifetime and it is not unreasonable to suppose that his
later activity in Cuba and elsewhere was in part a reaction against the
government he had known in his youth.
Flashback
to 1934. A night club in Junín, Eva’s hometown [ON THIS NIGHT OF A THOUSAND
STARS]. Eva Duarte is just 15. She asks the singer appearing in the club,
Agustín Magaldi, with whom she has had a brief affair, to take her to the big
city—Buenos Aires. He is reluctant [EVA BEWARE OF THE CITY] but she gets her way
[BUENOS AIRES].
Once in Buenos Aires, Eva quickly
disposes of Magaldi and works her way through a string of men, each of whom
helps her one rung more up the ladder of fame and fortune [GOODNIGHT AND THANK
YOU]. She becomes a successful model, broadcaster and film actress.
1943.
Colonel Juan Perón is one of several military leaders close to the presidency
of Argentina which in recent years has proved a far from secure job for its
tenant. [THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE].
At a charity concert (featuring Eva’s
old friend Magaldi) held to raise money for the victims of an Argentine
earthquake, Eva and Perón meet. They both realize that each has something the
other wants [I’D BE SURPRISINGLY GOOD FOR YOU]. From now on Eva hitches her
ambitions to political stars. She evicts Perón’s mistress from his flat
[ANOTHER SUITCASE IN ANOTHER HALL] and moves into Perón’s life to such an
extent that she excites wrath of two factions who were to remain her enemies
until her death—the Army and the Aristocracy [PERON’S LATEST FLAME].
As
the political situation becomes even ore uncertain it is Eva rather than Perón
who is more determined that he should try for the highest prize in
Argentina—the presidency, supported by the workers whose backing she and Perón
have long cultivated. [A NEW ARGENTINA].
ACT TWO
Eva’s
ambition is fulfilled and from the balcony of the Casa Rosada on the day of
Perón’s inauguration as president (4 June 1946), the vast crowd gives Evita,
now Perón’s wife, an even greater reception than that accorded to Perón—thanks
to her emotional and brilliant speech and to her striking appearance [DON’T CRY
FOR ME ARGENTINA]. Che notes and experiences some of the violence that was
never far away from Perón.
Che
asks Eva about herself and her success but does not meet with a great response
[HIGH FLYING ADORED]. Eva’s main concern is her forthcoming tour of Europe
[RAINBOW HIGH] which begins in a blaze of glory in Spain but meets with later
setbacks in Italy and France. She never gets to England at all [RAINBOW TOUR].
On her return home, Eva resolves to
concentrate solely on Argentine affairs, undeterred by continual criticism from
the society of Buenos Aires [THE ACTRESS HASN’T LEARNED THE LINES YOU’D LIKE TO
HEAR]. Che points out that the regime has to date done little or nothing to
improve the lot of those Eva claims to represent—the working classes.
Eva launches the Eva Perón Foundation
[AND THE MONEY KEPT ROLLING IN AND OUT], a huge concern of shambolic
accountancy and little practical benefit to the nation’s economy although it
helps to elevate her to near goddess status in the eyes of some of the those
who benefited from the Fund—including children [SANTA EVITA]. Che’s
disenchantment with Eva is now total. He sneers at those who adore her and for
the last time tries to question her about her motivation and the darker side of
the Perón administration [WALTZ FOR EVA AND CHE]. Eva’s response is that of the
pragmatist. "There is evil ever around, fundamental." She has
realized that she is ill.
Anti-Eva feeling among the military
reaches new heights, and Che lists several of the major failures and abuses of
the Perón administration. Perón attempts to justify her domination of Argentine
life. He draws attention to her illness [SHE IS A DIAMOND].
Perón
and Eva discuss the worsening situation—he is losing his grip on the
government, she is losing her strength. Eva refuses to give in to her illness
and resolves to become vice-president [DICE ARE ROLLING].
But
the opposition to her from the army is too great; more importantly her body
lets her down. She knows that she is dying and makes a broadcast to the nation,
rejecting the post of vice-president, a position she knows she could never have
won. [EVA’S FINAL BROADCAST].
In her last hours, images, people and
events of her life flow through Eva’s mind, while the nation’s grief knows no
bounds—to the mass of people she has become a saint, nothing less. As her life
draws to a close she wonders whether she would have been happier as an obscure
ordinary person. Maybe then her life would have been longer… [LAMENT].
But even in death she is denied
obscurity. The moment she dies the embalmers move in to preserve her fragile
body to be "displayed forever," although this never happened. The
story of the escapades of the corpse of Eva Perón during the quarter-century
after her death is almost as bizarre as the story of her life.
Source: CD Notes – EVITA: PREMIERE AMERICAN RECORDING, 1979
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