In the organizer's words:

19.02.2026, Thu, 19:30
The Opera Studio as a guest at the Heine Haus with:
MI BUENOS AIRES QUERIDO
Jorge Louis Borges, the city and the tango

The Heine Haus and the Opera Studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein continue a successful collaboration: on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Heine Haus, a powerful combination of literature and music will once again be heard, this time in the context of Piazzolla's opera María de Buenos Aires and the texts of the Argentinian author Jorge Louis Borges, whose texts were set to music by Astor Piazzolla, among others. Borges' texts tell of the culture of the suburbs shaped by the gauchos, their rituals and their music, the milonga and the tango.

With Jorge Espino (baritone) and Anastasiya Titovych (piano).

Originally from Mexico, Jorge Espino studied in his home town of Mexico City and at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. He continued his training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he sang the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in a co-production by Opera Philadelphia in 2019. The baritone has won awards at numerous singing competitions: in 2018 he reached the semi-finals of the Glyndebourne Competition, was a finalist at the International Belvedere Competition in Jurmala, won 2nd prize at the AIMS Competition in Graz and reached the semi-finals of the BBC Cardiff Competition Singer of the World. In December 2020, he won the Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions for Mexico. In the 2018/19 season, Jorge Espino became a member of the opera studio at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, joining the ensemble permanently a year later.

Pianist Anastasiya Titovych studied at the National Academy of Music of Ukraine in Kiev and completed masterclasses with Nikolaj Petrov and José Ribera. She has received numerous awards, including at the International Piano Competition in Naples and the International Competitions for Young Pianists in Kiev and Vienna. In 2004 she won the diploma of the Ukrainian program "New Names of Ukraine". As a soloist, Anastasiya Titovych has worked regularly with the Odessa Philharmonic National Orchestra and the Kiev Chamber and Youth Orchestra. She has toured numerous countries including Germany, Denmark, France, Poland, Israel, Finland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Norway and the USA and has performed with opera singers such as Vladimir Galouzin, Oksana Dyka, Dmytro Popov, Olga Mykytenko, Taras Shtonda and Lena Belkina. Following recordings on Ukrainian, Polish, Czech and Danish radio, she released the CD "Pearls of the Art of Song" with bass Taras Shtonda in 2009, followed by the CD "Russian Songs" with Denis Vyshnya in 2012. From 2006 to 2018, Anastasiya Titovych was engaged as a pianist at the Ukrainian National Opera in Kiev. She has been working as a repetiteur at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein since the 2018/19 season.