BE A STRONG VOICE
INÉS KALLAB
"I love singing, dancing, writing- they bring me so close to myself, making me feel alive and deeply connected."
Something to listen to:
Here are a few recordings from my previous program, 'Tango De Pasión':
"Inés Kallab touchingly captured the ever-changing moods of traditional tango and nuevo tango by composers like Astor Piazzolla and Carlos Gardel, with sentimental, charming, and defiant melodies about the joys and sorrows of love. Bathed in red spotlight, she, seated on a barstool, didn't miss the slightly sultry expression in her voice and gestures."
Cologne Rundschau, August 2007"
Balada pare mi muerte
(Ballad for my death)
Music and lyrics by Astor Piazolla
Piano: Peter Wegele
This tango tells the story of a woman who consciously prepares for her own death.
Gently, she looks back on her life – her small poetry of farewells and bullets, her tobacco, her tango, her handful of melancholy. She drapes the dawn over her shoulders like a cloak. The second-to-last whisky she leaves untouched.
At exactly six o’clock, she will be dead.
From afar, she already sees her enamoured death approaching her in tango rhythm. So she begins to dream – travelling in her mind to Santa Fé, where her lover waits for her at the corner.
“Hold me tight,” she whispers, “for inside I can hear all the deaths. Everything I’ve ever loved is being taken from me.”
Tenderly, she tells her soul not to cry. The time has come to go.
“In Buenos Aires I will die, at dawn – for this is the hour of those who know how to die.”
And as she walks across Plaza Francia, a weary ballet dances its final, misty shadow play. Slowly, on tiptoe, her memories fade away.
I see death here as symbolic. Life continually asks us to let go of perspectives and identities to come closer to our true, divine nature. In Sufism, for example, this process of dying and becoming plays a central role.
Por una cabeza
(By a head length)
Music and lyrics Alfredo Le Pera & Carlos Gardel
Piano: Peter Wegele
Perhaps you know the movie Scent of a Woman. In a beautiful scene, Al Pacino dances with a young woman to this tango.
A woman compares love to a horse race—almost missed, just by a nose. When the young horse returns, it seems to whisper: “Don’t forget, sister. You know you shouldn’t gamble.”
Yet the seductive man repeatedly draws her into his spell, feigning love and igniting her desire.
All these emotions, all the lost bets, all the madness—just for a kiss that lifts her sorrow and soothes her bitterness. She vows never to fall in love again. Yet a single glance, and she wants to kiss his fiery mouth once more—and risks everything all over again.
What I love about this tango is its message, its spirit. Life is a game. And in love, there are no guarantees. You have to take risks. It takes courage to give yourself to love with your whole heart. What you gain is priceless. You feel life, love, the full spectrum of your emotions.
Sus ojos se cerraron
(His eyes have closed.)
Music and lyrics Alfredo Le Pera & Carlos Gardel
Piano: Peter Wegele
This is a very sad tango. A woman stands at her lover’s grave, feeling the full weight of loss. The silence is cruel, his laughter gone, his hands no longer on her skin. Pain claws into her. In a way, she envies him, for his face looks so peaceful. Outside, life’s carnival laughs, mocking her love. Strangers will come to comfort her, but today her heart is alone.
This tango connects me with my inner resistance, my feelings, and my pain. Anger and bargaining with life—two of the seven stages of healing—rise to the surface.