About the work
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical was premiered in 1978 in London's West End and tells the life of the Argentine first lady Eva Perón. Conceived as a through-composed rock opera, the work began as a concept album whose single Don't Cry for Me Argentina became a hit before the stage premiere. Harold Prince's staging gave the material its defining, Brechtian sense of distance.
Plot
The girl Eva Duarte rises from poverty in the Argentine provinces, by way of a career as a radio and film actress, to become the wife of the ascendant politician Juan Perón. Through charm, ambition, and political skill she wins the hearts of the Argentine working class, the descamisados, and becomes the adored "Evita." The narrator Che accompanies her ascent with critical commentary, questioning the cost of her power and the personality cult around her. At the height of her fame, Eva dies of cancer in 1952, aged only 33; the nation is plunged into mourning.
Cultural significance
Evita established the historical rock opera as a serious genre and produced, in Don't Cry for Me Argentina, one of the best-known of all musical songs. The work won numerous Tony Awards and prompted debate about the line between political glorification and critical portrayal. Alan Parker's 1996 film, with Madonna in the title role, carried the material to a worldwide audience. Its double perspective of adoration and scepticism makes Evita one of the most ambitious musicals of its era.