They are probably, along with Quino, the most powerful and stable routine. Argentine in the collective memory of democratic Spain. It is significant that his first tour of our country in 1974 was unsuccessful: freedoms were to come, and with them curiosity and a general thirst for new stimuli, so that the white, but critical and intelligent humor of Les Luthiers, with its cultivated flavor of Buenos Aires, will take root in our country and will find here one of its most devoted audiences. Nearly fifty years after that, this Wednesday at the CaixaBank Príncipe Pío theater kicks off the eighth formation of the comic-theatre-musical group, the Spanish leg of their farewell tour with the show. New failures of Mastropiero.

Twenty-four dates in Madrid until June 25, followed by performances in Seville (June 27 and 28), Nerja (June 30 and July 1), Barcelona (July 4, 5 and 6) and Sant Sant Feliu de Guixols (July 9). , say goodbye for good before becoming “senile grotesques” as he joked in January Carlos Lopez Puccioone of the founding members, who remains with the group shortly before the start of the tour, which is currently taking place in Madrid at the Teatro Opera in Buenos Aires.

Failure in time

“This year I will be 77 years old, and Jorge” -Jorge Maronna, another active founder – “75. We feel very cheerful and artistically we think we are in a better moment; but as we get closer to 80 years old, our muscles and joints foresee that they will soon begin to create obstacles for us, ”he admitted. Yesterday they presented their shows in Spain at the Casa de América, accompanied by the rest of the current Luthiers line-up: Roberto Antier, Thomas Mayer-Wolf, Martin O’Connor and Horacio Tato Turano.

His mythical and parodic world, made up of songs – about two hundred, such as “The Ballad of the Seventh Regiment”, “San Icticola de los Peses”, “Family Fun”, “Rhapsody in Balls” or bolero “Forgive Her” – and impossible instruments – a bewitching alembic, a chromatic silicone tubophone, a detuned or mandoclet, and so on up to thirty – complicitly appeals to the viewer’s culture. And it nestles in the memory of those who came to them with extraordinary fidelity year after year, passing on their love from children to grandchildren. Enthusiastic fans who filled the air with videotapes of their performances, and now thanks to the band’s generous YouTube profile archive, which has over 800,000 subscribers. On the Eve of Les Luthier’s Retirement they fail years in new supports, where they accumulate subscribers -170,000 on TikTok, 331,000 on Instagram-, like and views.

“Neither ideological nor pedagogical”

And his work stands the test of the new moralism and the rigors of political correctness. Something unusual with a trajectory more than fifty years old. The key, perhaps, is that “Les Luthiers were never ideological or pedagogical,” López Puccio explained yesterday, once again speaking as spokesperson. “The main goal is to have fun and have fun. There is a bit of inclusive language, gender issues, we talk about all this all the time when we talk about political correctness. And we play it with a very light obscenity, which is to laugh along with the audience that is on one side or the other.” A remarkable balance, available to very few.

Somehow, Les Luthiers began to say goodbye in 2017 when they ended their half century of existence and received the Princess of Asturias Communication and Humanities Award for being “a critical mirror and benchmark of freedom in contemporary society.” Then one of its most experienced members decided to retire, Carlos Nunez Cortes – that the other day he presented his book in Spain Master’s Memories–. Daniil Rabinovich died two years earlier. And in April 2020, this was done by Marcos Mundstock, the most recognizable voice of the group and the creator, along with the untimely deceased Gerardo Masana, of the cult character of Les Luthiers, the enigmatic and mysterious Johann Sebastian Mastropiero. The new show revolves precisely around a supposed interview in which the fictional composer looks back on his life as a composer “from the first setbacks to the most recent.”

From the seeming severity of his clothes, tuxedo and black tieLes Luthiers are back to make us laugh and think for the last time. Though if the farewell is tender enough, they might consider it. And by the way, they talk about it in a new song.