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- "Viva la Vida! Frida Kahlo e Chavela Vargas" on stage in Rome on 18 Sep at Tor Bella Monaca Theatre
"Viva la Vida! Frida Kahlo e Chavela Vargas" on stage in Rome on 18 Sep at Tor Bella Monaca Theatre
11 September 2025
The show opens with Frida Kahlo's voice describing the love of her life, the painter Diego Rivera. This is an extremely rare recording, perhaps the only existing audio recording of the artist, which the Fonoteca Nacional del Mexico recovered and digitised in January 2019 and decided to make public last June. The words are fragments of “Retrato de Diego”, a text that Frida Kahlo wrote for her husband in 1949. The audio dates back to 1953-54.
While it is certain that the love story between Frida and Diego was intense and passionate, equally intense was the love and deep friendship that bound Frida Kahlo to the legendary Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. This is the starting point for the play: an imaginary story/dialogue between Frida Kahlo and Chavela Vargas, in a poetic and visionary journey that, intertwining music and theatre, leads us into the lives of two of the most
charismatic figures in Mexican culture. Francesca Bianco, who gives voice to the painter, and Eleonora Tosto, who sings the songs of Chavela Vargas, accompanied on guitar by Matteo Bottini, alternate in an exchange of emotions and dreamlike suggestions, in which art, music and life appear inseparable.
by Valeria Moretti
with Francesca Bianco and Eleonora Tosto
Matteo Bottini on guitar
video by Caterina Botti
directed by Carlo Emilio Lerici
More info about the play at this link.
Logistics and tickets info at the link below (in Italian).
