The passion of tango returns to Las Vegas this weekend

When Oscar Carrescia was a young violinist, playing in Argentina’s national orchestra, he joined his colleagues for a rehearsal at a Buenos Aires radio station.

That night, he returned to the station’s studios — on the sly — to hear celebrated tango singer Edmundo Rivero.

But that was then, in the early 1960s, when tango wasn’t quite respectable — at least not when compared to classical music.

And this is now, with Carrescia conducting three “Tango Pasional” concerts Friday through Sunday at the Winchester Cultural Center. (A festive Argentinian dinner precedes the Friday and Saturday night performances; dinner tickets are $40 and may be ordered by calling the center.)

“Tango Pasional” is the third tango program Carrescia has organized at the center, where he’s been a fixture leading the Las Vegas Youth Camerata Orchestra since the 1980s.

Patrick Gaffey, the Clark County cultural program supervisor based at Winchester, asked Carrescia “a long time ago to do another tango show,” the conductor says. “When I do a tango show, it is sold out,” he notes, which is not quite the case with Beethoven or Mozart.

Gaffey isn’t sure why, but “tango is just extremely popular in Southern Nevada,” he says. “We never did a tango show that did badly. People just turn out for it.”

This weekend’s “Tango Pasional” features an expanded musical lineup, including five violins, cello, piano and bass.

In addition to Argentinian singer Liliana Dominguez (who performed at Winchester in 2008), the guest lineup includes singer Damian Rivero, the grandson of the singer Carrescia snuck into the Buenos Aires radio station to hear.

Rounding out the guest list: dancers Daniela Rosal and Claudio Otero and bandoneon player Richard Scofano.

After all, “it’s not tango without bandoneon,” Carrescia says of the accordion-like instrument.

Carrescia began studying music at 9, concentrating on the classics, but “I love the tango all my life,” he says during an interview at his in-home music studio, where he teaches violin, viola and guitar. “In Argentina, tango is in every house.”

At the time, “the tango was not recognized like fine art, like it is now,” explains Carrescia, who came to Las Vegas in 1962 and played in Strip orchestras for such headliners as Tony Bennett, Paul Anka and Jerry Lewis.

One reason for tango’s wider acceptance as serious music: composer Astor Piazzolla, whose works will be featured in the show, performed by Trio Buenos Aires (alias pianist Valeria Ore, violinist Dmytro Nehrych and cellist Raymond Sicum).

“When Piazzolla came, he used the syncopation differently than the other composers,” Carrescia explains. “He influenced everybody.”

An even more familiar melody may be the concert closer, Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera’s “Por Una Cabeza,” which movie fans may recognize as the tango Al Pacino danced in his Oscar-winning “Scent of a Woman” role in 1992.

With its insinuating rhythms and insistent lyrics (even if you don’t understand the words being sung, you understand the feelings behind them), the tango casts a powerful spell.

Little wonder, Carrescia says, “I always have tango in my soul.”

Read more from Carol Cling at reviewjournalcom. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.