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Evita
by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
Evita: Patti LuPone
Che: Mandy Patinkin
Juan: Bob Gunton
(Taken from the Libretto text:)
Evita is an opera based on the life story of Eva Peron, the second wife of the Argentine president Juan Peron. Eva Duarte was born in 1919, 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 Peron, "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 Peron 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 Perons 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 Junin. Eva's hometown (ON THIS NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS). Eva Duarte is just 15. She asks the singer appearing in the club, Augustin 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 Peron 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 Peron 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 Peron's mistress from his flat (ANOTHER SUITCASE IN ANOTHER HALL) and moves into Peron's life to such an extent
that she excites the extreme 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 more uncertain it is Eva rather
than Peron who is more determined that he should try for the highest prize in Argentina-the presidency, supported by the workers whose backing she and Peron 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 Peron's inauguration as president (4 June 1946), the vast crowd gives Evita, now Peron's wife, an even greater reception than that accorded to Peron-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 Peron.
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 class.
Eva launches the Eva Peron Foundation (AND THE MONEY KEPT ROLLIN IN AND
OUT), a huge concern of shambolic accountancy and of little practical
benefit to the nation's economy although it helps to elevate her to
near goddess status in the eyes of some of 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 Peron administration (WATLS 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 Peron administration.
Peron attempts to justify her domination of Argentine life. He draws attention to her illness (SHE IS A DIAMOND).
Peron 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 a makes a broadcast
to the nation, rejection 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 Peron during the quarter-century after her death is almost as
bizarre as the story of her life.
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