TANGO ARGENTINO
ULRIKE & ECKART HAERTER

Home

MONTEVIDEO


What you'll notice very soon in Montevideo is the almost complete absence of show tango. If Buenos Aires is the 3 Star Restaurant of the tango with all the pomp and circumstances that belong to an establishment like that, Montevideo is the restaurant of affectionately made regional cooking that you'll like for a lifetime. Here tango is an element of life, so natural and unobtrusive that nobody gets the idea it could need a refinement.

When you first come to Montevideo, you might think there is no tango at all. But when you learn to know better this nostalgic, a little antiquated city with the charm of a past epoch, you'll realize, this city is tango. The permanent soft breeze from the Rio de La Plata that can change suddenly to a storm, the street crossing with no traffic but with traffic lights, the Confitería that looks perfectly like its name "Barrio Viejo" (Old Quarter), a Milonga in the old Mercado de la Abundancia in front of the blazing fire of the asado ...

We were sitting outside a chain restaurant when an old man appeared with a full white beard, wearing a neat suit. He had a guitar and began to sing "es la última copa de mi vida, de mi vida muchachos que se va... ", and his old voice matched the melancholic text perfectly. We joined him, dancing a few bars on the pavement, the other people at the tables joined him singing. Passers bye stopped and watched the scene, applauding. And everybody gave the old tanguero some pesos con mucho gusto. It was a 3 minutes peña out of nothing. Tango in Montevideo...

Montevideo is the place where Ulrike and I had our most beautiful tango experiences, including unforgettable performances. So it was inevitable Montevideo to become the tango home of our hearts.

Tango in Montevideo, that is of course "La Cumparsita", too, the most famous tango in the world, composed by the Uruguayan Gerardo Matos Rodríguez and almost something like Uruguay's second national anthem. La Cumparsita was played for the first time in 1917 in Montevideo by the orchestra Roberto Firpo - at the very place where today stands the Palacio Salvo, the bizarre landmark of the town (see above).

Tango in Montevideo, that's - not least - red wine, steaks and salad in big portions. Breakfast with tango music and a view onto the River Plate. Tango - more than an enrichment of our everyday lives. Tango as a basic substance of our lives that gives us strength for body and soul.

And here a link to Milongas in Montevideo


Home Top