Sometimes the glitter seems to come from talmi, pinchbeck.

The reason for that may be, that there are so many temples of the show tango, where night after night busloads of tourists are dealt with. 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", 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, es la última copa de champán ... ", 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 and unforgettable performances. But it is not so, that people applaude here indiscriminately. We have seen in a big theatre an Argentinian tango singer totally come a cropper. The poor man slaved away dripping with sweat, but he did not succeed in enthusing the audience. He did not even sing bad, but he lacked the ability to transform a sung tango into a drama. The audience in Uruguay is open minded, cordial, unbiased and knowledgeable. Everyone who brings something across is accepted, no matter where he comes from. (This, by the way, applies also to the people in Argentina). The audience on the River Plate does not consider themselves mere onlookers but participants in the show. They are all experts. and they let you know. Before and after the show many people seek contact to the performers and many a commenting interruption makes the whole show a lively exchange between artists and audience. Tango in Montevideo, that is of course "La Cumparsita", too, the most famous tango in the world, composed by the Uruguayan Gerardo Mattos 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. Other famous Uruguayans were, for example, Francisco Canaro and Julio Sosa (and there is the ineradicable story of Carlos Gardel being born in the Uruguayan town of Tacuarembó ... ). An Uruguayan is also the great tango poet Horacio Ferrer ("Balada para un Loco"), for many years the president of the Tango Academy in Buenos Aires. Among Uruguayan musicians of today, who are cultivating the traditional tango, is the marvellous Orquesta típica of Miguel Villasboas with a special light and airy style, who's elaborate arrangements open up only when you listen to them twice (excellent for dancing !). Or Hugo Diaz, this great bandoneon player, who died much too early at the age of almost 51 in 1998. Or singers like Elsa Moran and Raul Montero. There are other Uruguayans that belong to the great innovators of the tango, like the bandoneon players Marino Rivero and Luis di Matteo. Marino Rivero, probably the best bandoneon virtuoso of our time and composer of ultramodern Tangos Nuevos is especially appreciated in the "Web". Julio Brum and his group "La Maroma" are creating a new sound in the unexhaustable spectrum of tango music: lyrical, spheric, unaccustomed and also good for dancing. Many Uruguayan tango musicians are working permanently abroad, only now and then coming back to their home country, like the leader of the New York Tango Trio, bandoneonist Raul Jaurena, or singer and guitarist Alfredo Sadi, who lives in Buenos Aires, or bandoneonist Enrique Tellería in Barcelona, Spain. The bandoneonist Romulo Larrea deserves a special mention. In Canada he built up a top tango orchestra. Smashing it's singer Veronica Larc. Tango in Montevideo, that's - not least - wine, beef 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.

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