Evita
A Latin funeral chorus and a rock band, tango and waltz divide one woman's life between two singing voices. One worships; the other doubts.
At a glance 🔭💭
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The creators ⏳🌊
- ComposerAndrew Lloyd Webber
Wove rock, orchestra and Latin dance rhythms into a political drama that flows entirely in song, without spoken dialogue.
- LyricsTim Rice
Conceived the work after hearing Eva Perón's story on the radio, and created Che as the narrator.
- DirectorHarold Prince
Directed the 1978 London premiere and the 1979 Broadway production, and asked for new scenes such as "The Art of the Possible."
- LeadJulie Covington
Sang Eva on the 1976 concept album, and its single reached number 1 on the UK charts.
- LeadElaine Paige
Made her name as Eva in the London premiere and won a London theatre award for performance in a musical for the role.
- LeadPatti LuPone
Won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical as Eva in the Broadway premiere.
I. An opera that began on the radio
(Origins) In 1973, on his way to a late dinner engagement, Tim Rice caught the end of a radio program about Eva Perón. It told the story of a woman born in a small country town who became an actress, then the wife of Argentina's president, and died at thirty-three. Rice gathered material and even traveled to Buenos Aires as he delved into her life. (The composer) Andrew Lloyd Webber at first turned the proposal down. He was the composer who had written “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” with Rice. Raised in a family of musicians, he had a gift for mixing rock, orchestral writing and Latin dance music on a single stage. When “Jeeves,” written with another lyricist, fell short of expectations, he came back to Evita. The work predates “Cats” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” both covered in this series. (The album) The work appeared on record before it reached the stage. It was a two-disc concept album recorded in 1976 at Olympic Studios in London by a rock band together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Julie Covington sang Eva, and Colm Wilkinson sang the narrator, Che. Wilkinson would later become Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables.” After the album's success, Harold Prince took on the direction, and the stage premiere opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in London on June 21, 1978. Prince also directed “Sweeney Todd” and “The Phantom of the Opera” in this series.
II. News from the cinema
(The cinema) As the curtain rises, we are in a Buenos Aires cinema on July 26, 1952. The film breaks off, and it is announced that Eva Perón has died. The work begins at the end of the story. The audience learns of the heroine's death first, and only then traces her life backward. (The funeral) Soon a Latin chorus leads the funeral procession. Music that has been painting a whole nation's grief in the solemn idiom of church music suddenly gives way to the sound of a rock band. Into that moment steps Che. (Che) Che is a narrator and critic who has come in from outside the story. He looks at the tears filling the streets as if they were a circus act, and he mocks them. From the very start, the music of this work splits into two voices: the voice of the crowd that worships Eva, and the voice of Che, who doubts that worship. Hidden in Che's song is the melody Eva will sing from the balcony in Act II. So the audience first hears that melody in a mocking tone. (Form) The work proceeds almost entirely in song, with no spoken dialogue. As in opera, scene is joined to scene by music, so even when a song ends, the story's time does not stop. The method Rice and Lloyd Webber had honed in their earlier works reaches its tightest weave here.
No sooner has the funeral chorus ended than Che cuts in to mock the nation's mourning. It is the song where the work's two voices first part ways.
- The Latin chorus just before it, “Requiem for Evita,” is as solemn as church music. Listen for the moment right after, when the rock band comes in and the mood is overturned.
- The melody springs from the same root as “Don't Cry for Me Argentina” in Act II. The audience first hears it in a mocking tone.
- On the album it was sung by Colm Wilkinson. In 1978 David Essex, the stage production's Che, released the song as a single.
- At the song's end, the crowd's chorus and Che's voice collide. The whole work's design of worship against cynicism is contained in these few minutes.
III. The road to the city
(Junín) The story returns to Junín, the small country town where fifteen-year-old Eva lived. Magaldi, a tango singer on tour, sings a honeyed song, and Eva latches onto him and begs him to take her to the city. Magaldi's song was deliberately written in a dated salon style. Its sweet sentimentality sounds like the world Eva means to leave behind. (Ambition) Having reached the capital, Eva introduces herself to the city on the rhythms of Latin dance. Driven by surging brass and percussion, this number is the music of ambition. Che sums up, in rapid scene changes, how she climbs upward using people as stepping-stones. (The meeting) After “The Art of the Possible,” in which army officers are ousted one by one as in a game of musical chairs, Eva meets Colonel Juan Perón at a charity concert. This scene was newly added to the stage version at Prince's request. The couple's duet plays out less as a declaration of love than as a contract, each offering the other usefulness. (The mistress) Eva moves into Perón's home and sends away the young mistress who was living there. The song the ousted girl sings alone is a rare spot in the work that politics passes by. While a figure from the story's margins briefly holds the stage, it becomes clear that Eva's rise is someone else's loss. Act I ends with “A New Argentina,” as Perón advances toward power amid the roar of the workers.
Newly arrived in the capital, Eva declares herself to the city. It is where ambition shows most openly in Act I.
- Brass and percussion surge over Latin dance rhythms. The song shows off Lloyd Webber's knack for blending rock with South American dance music.
- It is worth hearing against the dated salon-style song Magaldi sang earlier. The difference in musical temperature tells us the scene has moved from the countryside to the big city.
- Eva's melody leaps again and again into its upper register. The character's drive to climb seems built into the very shape of the line.
It is the song sung alone by Perón's young mistress after Eva has thrown her out. A private space opens briefly in the midst of a political drama.
- The accompaniment is thin and the melody plain. Set against the grandeur of the numbers around it, it brings into focus the plight of a girl drifting with a single suitcase.
- On the concept album it was sung by Barbara Dickson; it was also released as a single in 1977 and made the British charts.
- In Alan Parker's 1996 film version, the song is sung by Eva, played by Madonna. It is worth comparing how the same song changes meaning depending on whose mouth it comes from.
IV. On the balcony
(The inauguration) Act II opens with Perón's inauguration as president in 1946. A crowd gathers below the balcony of the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, and when Perón's speech ends, Eva steps forward. (The speech) Eva's song is both a speech and a confession. She makes no excuses for her past; instead she redefines her bond with the crowd in the language of love. The song begins quietly, swells as the orchestra builds layer upon layer, and is finally drowned in the crowd's cheers. The very melody Che sang mockingly at the start of Act I now rings as if sincere. Which one is true is for the audience to decide. (The symbol) In this song Eva moves beyond being a character in a story and becomes a symbol. Next, she presses her aides to furnish her with clothes, jewels and an image. On the European tour that follows, Spain welcomes her warmly, but reactions in Italy and France are mixed. Che reports on the journey with cool detachment. (Pace) The music of the tour scenes is dazzling but leaves no room to breathe. The glory Eva enjoys and the strain of holding on to it live within a single rhythm. At the end of the scene Eva shows the first signs of fatigue, a small piece of foreshadowing for what comes next.
It is the song of Act II's opening scene, in which Eva stands before the crowd on the balcony of the presidential palace. The melody Che mocked in Act I returns here wearing the face of sincerity.
- It begins like a quiet soliloquy and grows as the orchestra adds one layer at a time. The thickening sound shows the speech gradually taking hold of the crowd.
- The musicologist John Snelson heard in this melody an echo of the flow of Bach's “Prelude in C major” and the “Ave Maria” Gounod set above it. Listen for the broken-chord (arpeggio) accompaniment, which lets each harmony unfold one note at a time.
- Julie Covington's recording was released as a single and reached number 1 on the British charts in February 1977.
- On stage, Elaine Paige in London and Patti LuPone on Broadway are counted as the landmark performances of this song. LuPone won a Tony Award for the role.
- This melody returns at the end of Act II in “Eva's Final Broadcast.” How the same tune carries a different weight at the beginning and at the end is the heart of this work.
On the eve of her European tour, Eva presses her inner circle to get her clothes, her makeup and her image in order. The song shows glory in the making.
- Short, clipped rhythms drive on without pause. Eva's impatience and the hands bustling around her are drawn at once.
- Eva's commanding lines alternate with her aides' terse replies. The hierarchy of power is built right into the song.
- It also appeared on the B-side of Julie Covington's single "Don't Cry for Me Argentina."
V. Money and the saint
(The foundation) Back home, Eva sets up a charitable foundation. Che lays out how the money comes in and goes out in a brisk, giddy song. An uneven meter that keeps tripping the feet turns the murkiness of the foundation's books into sound. (The saint) Next comes a scene in which children call Eva a saint and sing as if in prayer. The melody is so simple and clear that it sounds all the more chilling. Here the music itself shows how far the cult has grown. (The waltz) The climax is a waltz in which Eva and Che finally meet face to face. The two never met in history, but the work sets them dancing on the same stage. Over a graceful triple meter they trade sharp words about ideals and reality, power and criticism. The dance keeps its poise to the end, but the words take aim at each other. This scene also makes plain that Eva's body is failing. (The generals) The generals try to stop Eva from running for vice president. Perón shields her, likening her to a diamond. The wall of power and her illness close in on Eva at once. As the dice of fate roll, the music alternates between the urgency of politics and the private talk of husband and wife.
Che lays out, in a giddy song, how money flows in and out of Eva's charitable foundation. The song shows the other side of the cult.
- An irregular meter (changing meter), whose beats never fall evenly, keeps tripping the feet. The rhythm creates the sense that the flow of money is somehow off.
- The tune is brisk and the chorus is in high spirits, yet over it Che's words are cynical. The song is built on a mismatch between bright sound and dark content.
- This is where Che moves a step further, from narrator to accuser. The ensemble dancing and staging of this scene vary widely from production to production, which makes comparing performances a pleasure.
Two people who never met in history confront each other head-on over a dance in triple time. It is the climax of the work.
- A graceful waltz in triple meter wraps the surface, but the words exchanged are like blades. The dignity of the form and the sharpness of the content interlock.
- This was the only track on the concept album recorded separately, at Henry Wood Hall in London, to capture the resonance of a real concert hall.
- There are moments when the ends of Eva's phrases lose a little strength. They sound like a device hinting at her illness.
- In the 1996 film, Madonna and Antonio Banderas are known to have sung this waltz. The dancing and the camera bring the two closer together than on stage.
VI. The final broadcast
(The broadcast) Eva gives her last address to the nation by radio. The melody she sang from the balcony returns here. Sung now by a weakened voice, the same melody takes on a weight entirely different from the first time. The song that once held the crowd captive becomes a song of farewell. (Montage) The music strings together brief fragments of the work's many themes, rapidly rewinding the scenes we have passed through. As the chorus from the opening cinema scene sounds again, the story returns to where it began. (Lament) In the final song, Eva is left alone. The lavish orchestra falls away, and she looks back calmly on the path she chose. How that song ends, and what follows on stage, is left for you to see and hear for yourself. (Afterglow) Just one thing should be said: the music never reaches a verdict. The answer to whether Eva was a saint or a schemer remains somewhere between Che's voice and the voice of the crowd. Here it becomes clear why the work was woven from two voices from the very start.
The last song of the work. Once the lavish orchestra falls away, Eva looks back alone on the road she has traveled.
- Fragments of earlier themes drift quietly past. A whole life seems to be summed up in one short song.
- The accompaniment thins out and the voice comes forward. Heard against the voice that overwhelmed the crowd from the balcony, it reveals two faces of the same woman.
- What follows on stage after the song ends is best discovered for yourself. The afterglow of this ending lies in the music's refusal to pass judgment.
Lesser-known stories
(The title) "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," now the signature song of the work, at first had other candidate titles. A phrase like "It's Only Your Lover Returning" was one of them. The producers worried that a title containing the name of a country, Argentina, would hurt it commercially. But Covington had already recorded the line for the opening of Act I, and just before the mix Lloyd Webber suggested using it as the title of Eva's speech. Because a hit song's name is usually remembered as though it had been settled from the start, this history is rarely told. (Che) On the concept album, Che was aimed far more directly at Che Guevara than in the stage version. There was even a side plot in which he tries and fails to sell an insecticide; the song that carried it, "The Lady's Got Potential," was cut from the stage version and then revived with new lyrics in the 1996 film. Prince, by contrast, had the stage Che made up to look like Guevara, while the film and the 2006 London revival moved back toward a nameless figure. That the narrator's identity changed from version to version is hard to see for audiences who have seen only one production. (The recording) According to Rice's account, the album cost £74,827.83 to make, about five times as much as Jesus Christ Superstar. After the recording was played for an invited audience, about 15 minutes were cut or rewritten, and the master disc was recut several times — side four no fewer than nine times. Though overshadowed by the splendor of the stage premiere, the skeleton of the work was already complete in this studio work. (The war) During the Falklands War in 1982, the BBC is recorded as having kept Covington's recording off the air, and a British military band is said to have played the song mockingly with altered lyrics. As the country the work portrayed and the country that made it actually went to war, a single song came to bear political weight.
Glossary 📚🔎
Concept album
(Meaning) A concept is the broad frame of an idea. The album takes the name because it is built around a single story or theme. (In film·musical scores) Not a collection of assorted songs, but an album made to run as one story from beginning to end. Evita came out first as such an album and succeeded before it reached the stage, and that success is what brought about the theatrical production. In gaming terms, it resembles a demo that lets you taste the story before the official release. Except that this demo was a finished work in its own right. (Elsewhere) In advertising and design, a concept is the guiding intention that ties a whole product or event together.
Sung-through musical
(Meaning) The English sung-through means sung (sung) all the way through (through). (In film·musical scores) Unlike an ordinary musical, where actors speak dialogue and then break into song, it is a musical that carries nearly every scene in song. Evita and, in this series, Les Misérables are prime examples. Since song rather than dialogue drives the story, it closely resembles opera. Picture giving a presentation to your class entirely in rap from start to finish. With no pause to catch a breath, the rhythm keeps going, and the listener keeps following.
Requiem
(Meaning) The Latin requiem means rest. The first prayer of the Catholic Mass for the dead begins with this word, and so the whole Mass came to be called by it. (In film·musical scores) A solemn choral work honoring the souls of the dead. Evita opens with a Latin requiem chorus. It is a device that announces in sound that the story begins with the heroine's funeral. Think of it as the air of a school memorial, when everyone bows in silent tribute, carried into music. (Elsewhere) In everyday speech, a piece of writing or art lamenting that something has come to an end is sometimes figuratively called a requiem.
Reprise
(Meaning) The English reprise comes from the French reprendre, to take up again. (In film·musical scores) Singing the melody of an earlier song again later on, usually with changed lyrics or mood. When the same tune returns, the audience feels on its own what has changed in between. In Evita, the balcony melody comes back in the final broadcast and takes on an entirely different weight. It is like a field-day cheer sung joyfully before the game and then sung quietly after a loss — the same song, a different meaning. (Elsewhere) In fencing, a reprise is a renewed attack made immediately after the first one ends.
Guiding motive (leitmotif)
(Meaning) The German Leitmotiv means leading (leit) motive (Motiv). A motive is the smallest melodic unit in music. (In film·musical scores) A short melody that recurs whenever a particular character, idea or event appears. From the melody alone, the listener knows who is being called to mind. In Evita, the melody of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" reappears at the beginning, middle and end, binding together the many faces of Eva. It is the same principle as in a game, when the same music always plays just before a boss appears and you know without looking at the screen.
Broken chord (arpeggio)
(Meaning) The Italian arpeggio means as if on a harp (arpa). The word comes from the image of plucking a harp's strings one by one. (In film·musical scores) A way of playing a chord — several notes pressed at once — by spreading it out one note at a time. It gives the sound a rippling, flowing feel. You can hear such flowing figures in the accompaniment to "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." It is like climbing stairs one step at a time instead of leaping up in a single bound. You arrive at the same place, but the way there is smoother.
Irregular meter
(Meaning) Byeonbak (變拍) means the beat (拍) changes (變). (In film·musical scores) A meter in which the grouping of beats shifts within a piece, or in which beats are grouped irregularly, in fives or sevens rather than in even threes or fours. The listener tries to keep step and keeps slipping out of time. "And the Money Kept Rolling In" uses such a rhythm to depict a flow of money that is somehow askew. It is like jumping rope while the friend turning it changes the tempo now and then, keeping you on edge. (Elsewhere) These days, among pop music fans, a passage where the rhythmic feel suddenly shifts mid-song is also called a meter change.
Waltz
(Meaning) The German Walzer comes from walzen, to turn or roll. The image of couples whirling round and round is built into the name. (In film·musical scores) A dance in three beats to the bar, with the first beat stressed. It usually calls to mind elegance and glittering balls. Evita sets Eva and Che's sharp-edged argument on top of this graceful form, creating a scene whose surface and substance differ. If you have ever counted one-two-three, one-two-three in gym class to match steps with a partner, that count is exactly the waltz's meter.