Chavela Vargas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chavela Vargas 2009 in Tepoztlán
Chavela Vargas 2006 in Madrid

Chavela Vargas (born April 17, 1919 in San Joaquín de Flores , Costa Rica ; † August 5, 2012 in Cuernavaca , Mexico , actually Isabel Vargas Lizano ) was a Mexican singer of traditional Mexican rancheras , usually songs performed by men about their devotion to women . Her deep, rough voice was striking.

Life and accomplishments

Vargas came to Mexico at the age of 14. She began to sing professionally in the 1950s and performed for many years with the most famous ranchera singer and composer in Mexico, José Alfredo Jiménez . Vargas' first record was made in 1961; about 80 more followed. In 1979 she retired from the music business and lived in Cuernavaca .

The Swiss Walter Saxer , executive producer of most of Werner Herzog's films ( Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes , Fitzcarraldo ), was an ardent fan of the Vargas since his youth. Although she had not made public appearances for years and no longer lived in Mexico, he suggested her for the cast of an Indian woman in the film Cerro Torre: Scream of Stone . After an intensive search together with the Mexican assistant director Luz Maria Rojas, they found Chavela in 1989 completely penniless in a kind of gazebo in a village two hours away from the capital San Jose in Costa Rica. Saxer convinced the then 70-year-old Chavela to come with him to Cerro Torre in Patagonia (Argentina) and play the role for US $ 25,000. This laid the foundation for an incredible comeback.

A year later, Pedro Almodóvar also discovered her distinctive voice and chose her as the interpreter for the soundtrack of his films The Arms of a Woman (Tacones lejanos) and My blooming secret (La flor de mi secreto) . In 1993 Chavela Vargas recorded two new albums in Spain in just one day, and a third in 1994. Then she went on a concert tour.

For the film Frida she worked with the composer Elliot Goldenthal and re-recorded her classic Paloma Negra . In one scene with Salma Hayek , she appeared as death. As a young woman, Vargas is said to have had an affair with the painter Frida Kahlo . In a 2000 Colombian television interview, she admitted that she was homosexual .

At the age of 83, Chavela Vargas made her debut at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2003 .

In 2007 the album Cupaima was released on the Marburg label Tropical Music, in 2010 the album ¡Por mi culpa! and in 2012 the album La Luna grande followed , a homage to Federico García Lorca .

Awards

documentary

  • 2017: "Chavela" by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi, according to Art-Magazin a description of their difficult sides as well as overall "a balanced, all-faceted approach to a 'man woman' who ... a bygone Mexico longed for by bohemians of all stripes kidnapped, which has long since ceased to exist ".

swell

  1. ↑ Murió Chavela Vargas - Sí, son amargas (Spanish) at www.montevideo.com.uy from August 5, 2012, accessed on August 5, 2012
  2. ↑ Art-Magazin, "Fridas Geliebte" ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Article on the website, dated August 18, 2017, accessed August 24, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-magazin.de

Web links

Commons : Chavela Vargas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Vargas, Chavela
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vargas Lizano, Isabel (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION mexican singer of traditional mexican rancheras
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH San Joaquin de Flores , Costa Rica
DATE OF DEATH 5th August 2012
Place of death Cuernavaca , Mexico