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VALPARAISO VALS – a performance by Gigi Căciuleanu

I wish to dedicate this performance to the singer Isabel Aldunate and to the memory of my wonderful friend, the singer-songwriter Desiderio Arenas “El Chere”.

“Valparaiso Vals” is a kaleidoscope of impressions, not only lived but also dreamed—some even with eyes wide open, like the one I experienced when discovering the city of Valparaíso, with the lights of its houses waltzing, as mysterious as they are jubilant, along the slopes of a hill the size of… the night. “Valparaíso en la noche”… “Valparaíso eterno”…

In a bar in Santiago, over glasses of wine that lasted until dawn, I discovered songs set to poems by Nobel Prize laureates Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, as well as works by poets just as “Nobel-worthy” such as Oscar Hahn or Lucio Advis… the world of brilliant singer-songwriters like Desiderio Arenas “El Chere”, or the richly textured compositions of Dioscoro Rojas, Eduardo Yañez, Lucho Barrios… not to mention the songs of the iconic Violeta Parra.

It was there and then that I heard countless times, performed by the singer Isabel Aldunate: the Mexican “Cielito lindo” (by Quirino Mendoza y Cortés), the Brazilian “Valsinha” (by Vinicius de Moraes & Chico Buarque), or the Cuban “Contigo en la distancia” (by César Portillo de la Luz). Because Valparaíso is not only Chile, just as New York is not only America, or Paris only France. It is a port open to the ocean, open to the world…

All of this became, in my imagination, part of a sung and danced poem, with the port city of Valparaíso as its backbone—a center and symbol of a continent, even of a world. “Valparaíso, Puerto Esperanza”.

Like a waltz: in three movements—poetry, music, dance. With a title, “Valparaiso Vals”, made of two words that both begin with the letter “V”… for Vis (Dream).

Gigi Căciuleanu

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Vocals: Oana Lăcrămioara Berbec
Assistant director and choreographer: Lelia Marcu Vladu
Soundtrack: Tudor Mareș
Music production: Vlad Veteș
Set design, costumes: Corina Boboc-Giorgescu
Lighting design: Horia Suciu
Cast: Luke Blair, Savyo Pereira, John Lee, Andrei Aranghelovici, Stefan Nicola, Ella Bogheanu, Taylah Rohweder, Oihana Legorburu, Alexia Simpson, Anna Simonova, Alessia Centofanti, Jodie Sunley, Gloria Negrea

Producer: Sibiu Ballet Theater / Fundația Art Production (with the support of JTI)

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Duration: 1h
Date of premiere: 28.04.2026
Original title: Valparaiso Vals
Romania