López Puccio on the transformation of Les Luthiers 1:17
(CNN Spanish) --
"To say goodbye is to die a little" says an old saying.
Something like this is felt by the faithful followers of Les Luthiers, the renowned Argentine humorous-musical group, which announced its "final farewell" in the first week of January after a successful 55-year artistic career.
Talent, scattered to seas, has been his weapon on stage;
the wise administration of the word, the ship of it;
the ingenuity, the port in which he moored each creation of his fascinating repertoire.
"The humor of Les Luthiers has layers. Layers of admission and layers of understanding," says Carlos López Puccio, one of the group's members.
We have "a naive humor," he adds.
This style has conquered several generations of Argentines and viewers in the countries where they took their art.
The founding stone was laid by Gerardo Massana in 1967. The formation was born as a quartet also made up of Marcos Mundstock, Daniel Rabinovich and Jorge Maronna.
Later, at different times, Carlos Núñez Cortés, Carlos López Puccio and Ernesto Acher alternated as members of the group.
Les Luthiers announce that they are retiring from the stage: there will be a farewell tour
In November, in the Argentine city of Rosario they began a new tour.
"In this show that is going to be called 'Más Tropiezos de Mastropiero' there is going to be an interesting mix between the past and the present," said Jorge Maronna, without anticipating anything about the announcement that would arrive in the first week of January.
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"After 55 years of successful career, we announce our final farewell to the stage," says a statement released by the group.
“We feel very vital, but as we approach 80 our muscles and joints anticipate that they will soon begin to present us with impediments”, adds Carlos López Puccio in the same text, while Jorge Maronna assures that “after so many years of aventuras Mastropiero deserves to rest”.
File photo.
This photo shows the members of Les Luthiers in 2017 when receiving the Princess of Asturias Award at a ceremony at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo, Spain.
(Credit: Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)
The news spread with the speed of lightning in every city, town and country where they spread their talent with the stature of high-ranking educators, with the purity of the popular, with respect for good taste, which have earned them their validity. through the years.
"In the 90s I saw people our age. They were people of our generation. It seemed like it was natural. Later I began to see, and now even more so, that many young people came," says Jorge Maronna with the purity of a child, as not being able to administer so much love, respect and veneration from the public that has been faithful to him throughout his artistic journey.
Throughout his impeccable career, Les Luthiers had eight different formations.
The quintet made up of Mundstock, Rabinovic, Maronna, López Puccio and Cortés was the one that made the longest tour.
For 29 years they starred in shows full of irony, combining the genre of the absurd and plasticity.
His famous character was Johann Sebastian Mastropiero.
This fictitious musical composer was presented in a sublime way by the stickman and master of words, Marcos Mundstock.
Les Luthiers had a witty and refined humor as the backbone of their performances.
A mixture of classical art with popular taste and an original inventiveness in the creation and use of rare objects from whose sounds they were able to extract music.
Precisely music was an essential element in his theatrical presentations.
For this they used lyrics, musical arrangements and instruments of their own creation.
It is almost impossible to condense the best of his inexhaustible repertoire.
Some of the most outstanding could be: "Misread monologue", where Rabinovich inserts and mutates the meaning of the words;
“Meeting at the restaurant”, in which Marcos Mundstock has to improvise the narration due to the forgetfulness of the text by his assistant;
"The youth of today", in which Maronna and López Puccio sing and parody young people and adults.
The years brought with them two impacts that devastated the planet Les Luthiers.
In 2015, Daniel Rabinovich passed away;
in 2020, Marcos Mundstock.
Since 2019, the group has been made up of López Puccio, Maronna, Roberto Antier, Tomás Mayer-Wolf, Martín O'Connor and Horacio Tato Turano, with Santiago Otero Ramos and Pablo Rabinovich as alternates in performances and tours.
The brilliance, solvency and spirit that made Les Luthiers so original and unique have been preserved.
The memory of the great comedian Marcos Mundstock 1:18
In its prolific career, Les Luthiers has garnered several distinctions.
The following stand out: the Konex and Martín Fierro awards from Argentina;
the Latin Grammy for musical excellence, and the Princess of Asturias award in the communication and humanities category.
"It turns out that with humor you can never be certain. My certainty today is that you cannot be certain," says López Puccio as if denying that Everest that they climbed to pure success in each theater for more than five decades.
The last tour of Les Luthiers will continue with its performances in January at the Buenos Aires Opera Theater and then in different cities of the country.
Later, the show will continue to be exhibited in various places around the world.
Les Luthiers demonstrated with their captivating creations, their unparalleled stage presence and the magnet of their ingenuity that they will be in force forever, with the seal of their indelible legacy.
The Luthiers