When I was planning this trip to South America, I made arrangements in advance to see the organs in Montevideo and the Buenos Aires Cathedral, but I certainly didn’t expect to find early music. When we toured the Teatro Colón, however, I saw a poster for the Gabetta Consort, which I suspected was an early music group, so I inquired about getting tickets. Barbi, our Spanish teacher, tried booking them for us, but experienced difficulties and said it would require a computer. We tried to book the tickets online but the only card the website would take was American Express.

So this afternoon, Marsha and I went to buy the tickets at the box office. The girl at the counter didn’t speak English, but we must have looked a little confused, because we could see her screen as she typed out questions in Google Translate! What was really cool was that when she pointed out some potential seats, the screen displayed the actual view of the stage from those seats!

She asked us if we were eligible for a Promo, because of our ages, and yes, when I showed her my passport, I was eligible for the Senior Discount price of 1000 Argentinian pesos, about $3.75 a seat! Our seats were fantastic, as you can see by these photos, and the theater is absolutely gorgeous, the acoustics phenomenal. No wonder this theater is considered the 3rd most beautiful opera house in the world.

The Gabetta Consort is a period instrument ensemble directed by violinist Andrés Gabetta, one of the most prominent baroque musicians. Their playing was over-the-top virtuosic, with exuberant tempos and impeccable technique.

This was Marsha’s first early music concert ever, and I had to explain that baroque stringed instruments used gut strings, and what a theorbo and cornetto are. What made this concert so extraordinary were the two male vocalists, the countertenor Terry Wey, who sang in the alto range, and Samuel Mariño, a sopranist, who sang in the soprano range.

In the old days, my husband Carl would whisper to me, “What note was that?” when a singer would sing a particularly high note. In this case, the countertenor sang a high A (!) = an octave and a sixth above middle C, and the sopranist sang an unbelievable high C (!) = TWO octaves above middle C! Absolutely extraordinary! And he didn’t just belt it out — he was able to sing extremely softly and sensitively.

The acoustics in the hall were so phenomenal that no amplification was necessary, unusual because period instruments are much softer than modern instruments.

Another memorable aspect of this concert was that Samuel Mariño came out in three different, dazzling outfits, all emblazoned with shiny sequins. The last outfit Marsha said was like tinsel on a Christmas tree!

Here’s the program we heard:

Even Marsha said that the concert was “¡FANTASTICO!”

In the early afternoon we met Barbi at the Japanese Garden and took many pictures of this beautiful place. We also enjoyed Japanese food while we were there.

After the Japanese Garden, we visited the MALBA, which stands for Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, with a large exhibition of contemporary art and a special display of the art of Frida Kahlo.

I was especially struck by this image of a rifle on a keyboard!

It was another fantastic day!