Evita - The Musical Andrew Lloyd Webber / Arr. Marcel Peeters

The musical comedy 'Evita' dates from 1976 and was the third whom composer Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote in collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice. It ran for eight consecutive years in the London West-End and was already acclaimed on Broadway in 1979.

'Evita' tells the lifestory of the passionate second wife of the Argentinian dictator Juan Peron. Eva Duarte was born in Los Todos in 1919. Her life was similar to that of Cinderella. Though from modest origins, she became the most powerful woman in her country as spouse of Juan Domingo Peron who was president of Argentina from 1946 to 1955.

She died of cancer on 26 July 1952, only aged thirty-three and was buried as a national heroin. Even after her dead, she was the object of a lay cult with the poorer Argentinian population. Only the army and the aristocracy had always opposed her position next to the president.

The story is told by a cynical young man called 'Che'.

He envies Evita's success while he cannot sell his invention, a new kind of insecticide. The splendid selection was made and arranged by Marcel Peeters. You hear succesively

'Overture', 'On this Night of a Thousand Stars', 'Eva beware of the City', 'Buenos-Aires', 'Goodnight and thank You', 'I'd be surprisingly Good for You', 'Another Suitcase in another Hall', 'Waltz for Eva and Che', and the evergreen 'Don't cry for me Argentina'.