Les Luthiers prepare to bid farewell after 55 years treading the boards
Legendary Argentine ensemble – creators of insane instruments and stars of humorous music and theatrical productions – announce final farewell tour after 55 years of gigging.
Legendary Argentine musical comedy group Les Luthiers, creators of insane homemade instruments, catchy songs and topnotch humour, have announced their farewell tour after 55 years of performing.
“We feel that, after half a century of touring and performing, we have achieved our goals, which is why we decided to say goodbye to our audience by planning a farewell tour to numerous cities around the world with our final show,” a statement published on the group’s official social media accounts confirmed.
The group revealed that their final tour will stop in Argentina, Latin America and Europe, but at press time the Les Luthiers website has only posted tickets for sale in January and February in Buenos Aires and 17 additional dates in June in Madrid.
The announcement was signed by 77-year-old Carlos López Puccio and 75-yearold Jorge Maronna, the sole remaining members of the original group founded in 1967. After the death of Marcos Mundstock in 2020 and Daniel Rabinovich in 2015, their two most recognisable members, the group has incorporated new musicians into their line-up to keep things fresh.
“We feel full of life and artistically, we believe we are at our best moment, but as we approach 80, our muscles and joints anticipate that our disabilities will soon begin,” confessed López Puccio.
For the farewell tour, Les Luthiers will premiere a new show, Más tropiezos para Mastropiero’ (or “More Missteps for Mastropiero”), their first non-anthological work of new material in 15 years. It recreates a supposed interview with Johann Sebastian Mastropiero, the ineffable, fictional protagonist of all of the group’s work.
“It will not be easy to conclude this wonderful work that we have enjoyed since we were very young and say goodbye to the public that follows and supports us, but after so many years of adventures, Mastropiero deserves to rest,” said Maronna in the statement.
The upcoming show “is the culmination of our history and at the same time a tribute to the career of the famous composer. It constitutes, by the design of the story and the novel contribution of the virtues of the 2019 cast, a sort of synthesis of tradition and modernity,” according to the release.
In their long and storied career, Les Luthiers conquered Latin America and toured Europe several times, particularly in Spain. They travelled to the United States and in 1980 gave one of their most unforgettable performances at the Avery Fisher Hall of the Lincoln Center in New York, in a show that was translated entirely into English. For more than five decades the group has continued to win over new fans, composing more than 170 songs and building more than 30 of their unique homemade musical instruments.
Among other awards and recognitions, the group won the Princess of Asturias award in 2017 and in 2011 received the Latin Grammy for musical excellence. In August 2007 they were awarded the ‘Encomienda de Número de la Orden de Isabel la Católica’ order by the Spanish government at a ceremony led by then-spanish Vice President María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, an honour granted in recognition of services benefiting that country.