Tangos e Tragedias

line up

• Hique Gomez (Violin, tambourine and vocal)
• Nico Nicolaiewsky (Acordeon, Piano and Vocal)

• country:
  Brazil
• region:
  Southern Brazil
• style(s):
  Gaucho
• label:
  Sbornia Records
• type:
  Band, Composer/Songwriter
• gender:
  male
• instrumentation:
  instrumental, vocal
• artist submitted by:
  Babel Produções Artisticas

TANGOS & TRAGEDIES
"Tangos & Tragedies" is entertainment, humor, theater and interaction with the public. Maestro Pletskaya (Nico Nicolaiewsky) and Violinist Kraunus Sang (Hique Gomez) are artists from the imaginary country of Sbornia. They play a ninety-minute concert of songs from Sbornian folklore, Brazilian songs, and international pop hits. These ingredients render "Tangos & Tragedies" pleasant to different audiences and age groups. It is a universal show, treating simply and humorously the great themes of impossible love, jealousy and other human tragedies. Their musical talent is well-known but that is not the only reason for the power of the show. Breaks between songs are filled with texts of great inspiration and vivacity. The two well defined characters tease the audience, cause bursts of laughter, and invariably lead the public out of the theater where encore requests are fulfilled.
In the video annexed to this material, it is possible to see a little of what is described here. It is meant to serve as a sample of the couple's talent and of the rich fiction created by both.

THE CHARACTERS AND THE ARTISTS
Maestro Pletskaya - Nico Nicolaiewsky
A maestro who plays the accordion and tells tragic stories. An afflicted man, with unfulfilled loves and delusions. A passionate lover who won't keep his emotions to himself. He is the most active of the two and often puts his partner in embarrassing positions. Nico Nicolaiewsky is a pianist, accordionist, singer, composer and actor. Born in 1957 in Porto Alegre, he began his career in a successful regional group that mixed elements of the local folklore with international pop hits. He often composes for the theater and his 1996 CD "Nico Nicolaiewsky" was used as soundtrack of the film "Amores", by Domingos Oliveira. In 2003 he record and releases his opera called "The Seven Faces of the Truth". And in 2007 releases a new album solo called "Where is the Love".

Violinist Kraunus Sang - Hique Gomez
A man of uncanny personality, with very expressive shadowy, swollen eyes. His look is worth a sentence. Reverent and humble, Kraunus does not hide his admiration for maestro Pletskaya. He is more lyrical and generous than his partner.
Hique Gomez is a multi-instrumentalist, a composer and an actor. Born in Porto Alegre in 1959, he began his career playing electric guitar and drums in rock groups. Later, he started to play Brazilian folkloric music and the mandolin in nightclubs. He also works with orchestras, presenting his arrangements, compositions and comic characters. For movies he composed several sound tracks and in "Margarette's Feast", written and directed by Renato Falcao, he plays the main character "the lunatic Pedro" and he also composed and produced most of the soundtrack. Winner of several awards, the movie was part of the official selection of Tribeca Film Festival 2003, and also of the MoMa Collection, representing Brazil in the Global Lens educational projetc. Released in DVD in the USA.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE SHOW
"Tangos & Tragedies" is a simple show, adaptable to theaters of different dimensions. There is no scenery. All they need are their costumes, a piano and the instruments they carry.

SBORNIA
Sbornia is the fictional country created by Nicolaiewsky and Gomes to be the origin and cultural context for their characters. Their Sbornian roots justify their clothes, hairstyles, accent and, above all, their repertoire. In time the folklore of Sbornia grew so rich that the island became almost the third character of "Tangos & Tragedies".
Geography: The location of Sbornia is a mystery. It is an island that has been floating through the seven seas since repeated unsuccessful nuclear explosions destroyed the isthmus that linked it to the continent. The unique condition of a nation that wanders through the oceans as like aimless boat may explain its cultural diversity and richness.
Politics: Sbornian political system is a hyperbolic anarchism.
Culture: Sbornia gathers cultural trash from all parts of the world. Big ships unload huge quantities of newspapers, magazines, films, photographs, statues, records, and paintings. This leads to an unprecedented situation concerning trade balance: Sbornia receives everything, but gives nothing. It does the favor of being a place where to throw away the world's cultural trash.
Tourism: Sbornia's main attraction is its cultural trashcan.
Economy: Sbornian currency is the New Scombrio, but it is not very useful. After the nuclear explosion, everything was destroyed but never rebuilt, which avoids new catastrophes in case of another explosion.

PRESS CLIPPINGS
Tangos & Tragedies' Brilliant Comedy - Zero Hora -Porto Alegre.
Brazilian couple stops the traffic in Argentina - Jornal do Brasil - Rio de Janeiro.
Nico and Hique's show has amused the audience in General San Martin Theater in Argentina - O Estado de Sao Paulo.
Magic of Tribal Feast - surprise and enchantment with inventions - Folha da Tarde - Sao Paulo.
Elegant, cynical and theatrical - Folha da Tarde -Sao Paulo.
Cheers to anarchy - Contempt for well-behaved convention - Folha da Tarde - Sao Paulo.
An exercise of creativity in "Tangos & Tragedies" - O Estado de Sao Paulo.
Brazilian tango in a good mood - Diario Ambito Financiero - Buenos Aires.
Nico and Hique present an unquestionable product where humor plays a leading role - Diario Ambito Financiero - Buenos Aires.
From Sbornia to the world, the success of the hallucinated couple - Zero Hora - Porto Alegre.

T & T HAS ALREADY INSPIRED MANY ARTISTS
Kraunus and Pletskaya's saga has already been made into comics, puppet show, a record and has even resulted in an exhibition. In 1998 a group of cartoonists, artists and photographers decided to produce the first Sbornian Exhibition. They all got inspiration from the show to create their own pieces. Part of the results of this exhibition is displayed throughout the pages of this material.
(The CD - the book - the puppets)
The Brazilian movie company "Otto Desenhos Animados" is producing an animation feature movie about the story of the two characters Kraunus e Pletzkaya called "Fuga em Re Menor para Kraunus e Pletzkaya", to be launched in 2009.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF THE SHOW
"Tangos & Tragedies" was first performed in September 1984, at a small bar in Porto Alegre, and went on until it had its first theatrical performance in 1986. The first seasons outside Porto Alegre were in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where the actors visited the main newspapers disguised as the characters of the show, which they still do for most interviews.
Back to Porto Alegre, they had a two-month summer season (January and February) at Teatro Sao Pedro, which was such a great success that it has been repeated every year, and it always sells out.
In addition to the shows in the countryside, other Brazilian capitals have become part of the couple's yearly itinerary, including performances at the main Brazilian theaters, such as Sao Paulo's "Olympia" and "Palace", "Sala Villa Lobos" at "Teatro Nacional de Brasilia", and many others in Rio de Janeiro. The show was presented in Buenos Aires in March 1997, at the Alvear Theater, in a version fully in Spanish, and in 1998 at the "International Buenos Aires Tango Festival".
In 1998, Brazilian and Argentinean artists portrayed the universe of the show at the "1st Sbornia Biennial".
During the 1999 Carnival, the "Escola de Samba Imperatriz D. Leopoldina", a carnival group from Porto Alegre, chose the show as the theme of its parade, paying homage to the 15 years of the show through a plot entitled "A Visita da Imperatriz D. Leopoldina ao reino da Sbornia - Uma Imperatriz entre Tangos & Tragedies" (The Visit of Empress D. Leopoldina to the Kingdom of Sbornia - An Empress among Tangos and Tragedies).
In the beginning of 1999, Nico Nicolaiewsky and Hique Gomez were awarded with the "Medal of Porto Alegre" offered by the City Hall in recognition of their relevant cultural contribution to the community.
The show have already played in Colombia, Equador , Spain and Portugal, where it was choosen by the audience as the best show performed in 2003 during the Almada Internacional Festival of Theatre. Tangos & Tragedies was invited to return to Portugal in 2004 as The Spectacle of Honor. In the same year, it was recorded live in a public square for 20 thousand people, a DVD celebrating the 20th anniversary of the show. It will be released this year (2007) by the label Orbit Music.