Balada para un Loco

Amelita Baltar premiered this Piazzolla/Ferrer composition in 1969 and the premiere became legendary — the audience at the Festival Buenos Aires was initially uncertain, then overwhelmed. The song is formally unusual for tango: surrealist imagery borrowed from Ferrer's poetry collides with Piazzolla's most expansive melodic writing. Baltar's voice has a theatrical quality, operatic in range if not technique, capable of spanning the enormous emotional distance the piece requires — from whimsy to anguish within a single phrase. The orchestration is full Piazzolla: bandoneón, strings, piano, all in conversation with the vocal rather than merely accompanying it. The text about a lunatic offering moonbeams to passersby resonated deeply in 1969 Argentina, carrying political undercurrents of creative freedom in a repressive era. It remains among the most important songs in the Argentine repertoire.